


Caught in the middle

by weddingbells



Category: One Direction (Band), Union J (Band)
Genre: Falling In Love, Fighting, Friendship, Lies, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-09 20:16:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weddingbells/pseuds/weddingbells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a bar Niall Horan is sitting, he's alone and bored. He glances over and notices George Shelley, just as alone as he is. Now, it would be a shame if they didn't end up being alone together, wouldn't it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm on my way

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [ this AU meme](), in which Niall and George meets and have a secret relationship. I thought this really needed some attention and this is why I am writing.  
> I think there will be 6 chapters, and I will try to post at least once a week!  
> I hope you will enjoy it.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: This is fiction. Even though it's inspired by the personalites and events with Union J and One Direction, none of this is true. This is just my imagination.

_There is a place for everyone, and here is where I belong, I have searched and I have found, and this is what I have become, all the world is waiting just for me and things will never be the same again_ (Ulrik Münther – _Tell the world I’m here_ )

 

Niall sips the last of his beer and sighs. He is bored. The bar is filled with people, mostly X Factor-people and maybe their friends and family, he doesn’t really know, doesn’t really care. He is still bored, still half drunk and all of his mates have left him to go with their partners somewhere else. Niall didn’t want to be the third wheel with any of the couples so here he is, alone, drinking like some kind of lonely loser with nothing better to do.

Niall sighs. The first hour or so was fun, lots of people wanted to say hi, congratulate him on One Direction’s success and take pictures with him. Now everyone seems to have gotten bored with him, because no one even looks at him twice and Niall hates that. Usually he enjoys the calm, the silence, but now he is desperate for someone to just _notice_ him and there’s no one in the bar that does that.

Niall waves for the bartender to give him another beer. Well, if he’s going to be alone this night at least alcohol can share his loneliness.

-

He tries not to hold a grudge, really, but George is actually quite annoyed with the fact that he’s left all alone at a stupid bar. The other boys had promised him a fun night out (which he needed, after that crappy performance and acting like an idiot in front of One Direction) but half an hour before they were going out, Jaymi had gotten a phone call. Apparently Olly was in town and Jaymi had excused himself to go out on a date with him instead. It didn’t really matter, George understood, it must be difficult to be away from your partner this long, so he hadn’t complained.

But then they got to the bar, and it hadn’t been that long before JJ and Josh went to look for someone to hook up with (or they went to hook up with each other, George didn’t really know anymore, just that there was obviously some sexual tension between them) and that had left George alone. All by himself. In a bar.

And no one even noticed him. A few of the people on the show had said hi to him, and he talked for a few seconds with Ella before she had to leave, and then it was just him again. George and whatever alcohol the bartender served him at the moment.

It wasn’t funny.

-

Niall looks up from his glass to notice a boy at the other end of the bar, looking about as lonely as he is feeling. Niall looks at him. It feels like he knows him from somewhere, he just doesn’t know where. The boy is annoyingly cute, with curly hair (yeah, maybe he reminds him of Harry, that must be it) and he looks tall, yet tiny, like he is one of those people that did a lot of growing in a short period of time.

Maybe Niall is staring a bit too intensely at him, because soon the boy looks up and meets his gaze, and Niall thinks that maybe he should look away, but he doesn’t want to. Anyway, the boy probably won’t mind that he is staring anyway, not every day one of the boys from One Direction is checking you out anyway.

Not that Niall usually spends his days checking out boys. Not really. He’s just acknowledging the fact that this boy is in fact, not that bad. He’s kind of cute. And anyway, he looks lonely, so maybe Niall should be the nice lad that goes over to talk to him.

He really should.

-

So Niall Horan is staring at him. This is just great. George sighs and tries to keep a straight face. Probably Niall is just laughing at him because he remembers how much of a fool he made out of himself earlier that day. Babbling like an idiot. Messing up his solo. Just stuff like that. George is thinking about looking away and maybe even get up and leave (why is he even still at this bar, he’s not having any fun and his friends have abandon him, he should have left an hour ago) but he doesn’t have time to get up before Niall starts walking towards him.

Niall takes the seat next to him, without a word, before he turns to him

“Oi, mate. Look like you’ve lost your cows or something.”

“Excuse me?” George says and fires away a forced smile. “I don’t have any cows.”

“Well, you should have cows, they are great.” Niall continues, and he looks so serious George doesn’t know what to make out of him, like, is this guy even for real?

“I’ll remember that.” George says and when he smiles now, it isn’t forced. He is actually a bit amused. “I’ll get famous, and then I’ll buy cows.”

“Oh, you’re thinking about getting famous? Well that’s a good idea lad, fame will get you lots of cows. So, what’s your thing then?”

 _He doesn’t remember him._ Typical. George kind of wants to cry. Or slap him. He isn’t even that sure of what he wants to do. Okay that Niall is so much for famous than he is, and probably ever will but really, they spoke only hours ago, shook hands and everything and he doesn’t even remember him? Niall is still beaming towards him though, and George decides to play along like nothing.

“Well, I sing. I’m in a group. You might have heard of us, Union J.”

“Union… Oh.” Niall says, and a shade of remembrance is casted over his face. “Oh, right, Union J. That’s you guys, you’re… Josh?”

“George.”

“George. Now I remember. George.” Niall grins and reaches out to shake George’s hand.  “Wow, didn’t think I’d be hitting on another boy band member by the end of the night. That’s usually more Louis’ thing.”

George laughs, maybe a bit too loud but he can’t help himself.

“You’re hitting on me?”

“Yeah, you can’t tell?”

“You mean your pickup line includes cows? That’s… interesting.” George grins and Niall is grinning back at him.

The evening is suddenly going so much better.

-

The way George (wow, embarrassing to not remember him) laughs is really contagious. Like really. Niall thinks it should come with a warning sign. The way he giggles/laughs and his curls drapes around his face his really a bit too much.

“Well, George, why are you sitting here all by yourself then?” Niall asks and hope that George doesn’t ask him the same thing. “Shouldn’t your life be filled with groupies already?”

George grimaces.

“Not really my thing. And all my mates decided they had better things to do than to hang around me, so… here I am. But why are _you_ here?”

Damn, he shouldn’t have asked.

“Well, I guess we’re kind of in the same boat you and me.” Niall says and shrugs. “The other lads decided to spend the night with their partners. And I’m not getting into that, no thank you.”

“Right.” George laughs again and Niall likes him already. He seems like fun.

“You want to get out of here?” Niall asks, thinking it’s worth a shot. “Anything must be better than sitting here, right? We could catch a movie?”

“Mr. Horan, are you asking me out on a date?” George asks and he’s grinning. “Isn’t that a bit too soon? You’re very bold.”

“Bold is my middle name.” Niall says and grins back. “So, what do you say?”

George looks down at his glass of beer. Then he gets up from his chair.

“Show me a good time then.”

“Gladly.” Niall says, delighted.

-

They don’t go to a movie, but George doesn’t really mind what they end up doing. Apparently Niall knows exactly where to go in London to have a great time, and they end up going on a stroll near The Thames. There are lights everywhere, and they can even see stars. Best part is that they are almost alone, and no one pays them any attention, which is now a good thing.

When they’ve been walking for an hour or so, Niall nudges George’s arm asking him if he wants to go see the stars even closer. George laughs, not really sure what the Irish guy is talking about, but he goes with it, thinking that it can’t be a bad thing anyway.

Niall leads George to an apartment house in a nice part of town, unlocks the doors and they walk up the stairs until Niall stops by a door that says _Roof_.

“You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” He asks, with a worried face. George laughs and shakes his head.

“No, not at all.”

“Good.” Niall beams and opens up the door, leading George outside.

They are on the roof. Like literally. And George can see everything, and London looks beautiful like this. Niall looks pleased as he notices the look on Georges face.

“You like it? I love this view. I get up here as often as I can.”

“Yeah, wow.” George says, out of breath. Niall leads him to a couple of deckchairs just standing there casually, as if they had been waiting for this. Niall signals to George to sit down. “Is this really your place though? We’re not breaking and entering?”

Niall laughs and then he assures George that that is not the case.

“I bought an apartment here for my parents, and myself, kind of early into our careers. If any of us are ever in London.” He explains as George sits down. “I like it here. Nice view and everything.”

“Really nice.” George whispers and Niall beams, pointing to the sky.

“See?” He looks up at the sky and George does the same. “You can really see the stars like this. It’s nice, isn’t it?”

George just nods, unable to say anything. It really is nice. It is really nice. He sits back, just enjoying the view for a couple of minutes, while Niall tells him the names of all the stars.

“Wow.” George says finally. “You really do know a lot. You come up here a lot then?”

There’s a shadow on Niall’s face.

“Yeah, well. Used to. Not really here that often nowadays though. You know, busy with everything. Mostly just staying in hotels instead, easier. All of the lads in the same place, you know.”

“Yeah, I understand.” George says and realizes that he for a second had forgotten that Niall is actually in a really famous boy band, just like George wishes he will be one day. He’s just been having too much fun, and Niall is sweet and funny and George is a bit lost in the way he acts around him.

“It’s great though.” Niall quickly says. “I don’t want to come off negative or anything. Being famous? Great. Being able to do what I love all the time? Great. Really is. I shouldn’t complain, I just…”

George laughs.

“Niall, I understand. You don’t have to make excuses or anything. Well maybe for letting me stay up here on the roof for too long because I’m getting cold.”

Niall grins and he gets up from his chair, then before George even can say anything he is sitting down in George’s lap instead.

“Want me to keep you warm?” He whispers and George feels a shiver down his spine. Niall’s blue eyes are really dangerously close and they are a bit too beautiful.

“Uhm, I…” George mumbles, feeling like he is about to turn into a babbling idiot again. “I didn’t know you were gay.”

“Lots of things you don’t know about me, George Shelley.” Niall says and leans in closer. “And lots of things I don’t know about you. And anyway, why do we need to label ourselves and our sexuality anyway?”

George shakes his head, he doesn’t really know why, maybe because he doesn’t have a good answer to the question.

“I just find you gorgeous.” Niall mumbles and now he is even closer, their lips only inches apart and George knows that if he just leans in a tiny bit more, they will be kissing. He’s not sure that it’s a good idea.

“You find me gorgeous because you’re drunk, right?” George asks, feeling stupid, but he doesn’t want to do anything just because of alcohol. Niall shakes his head almost violently.

“Not at all. You’re just gorgeous, mate. Now, can I please kiss you before I go crazy and your legs go numb?”

“Okay.” George says, breathlessly as Niall closes the distance between them.

George really doesn’t want to make a fool out of himself but he’s not really used to kissing people he just met, not really used to kissing boys and Niall’s scent and the heat of his body and the way he’s lips move against his has him completely thrown over the edge. He doesn’t know what to do, so after a while George just let’s go of himself, of all thoughts of reason and just does what his mind is telling him to do. And he kisses Niall back, with passion, letting his lips play with Niall’s. Niall moans into George’s mouth as George parts his lips, and suddenly his tongue is inside George’s mouth, and George feel him exploring every corner of his mouth, tasting him completely as Niall’s hands are in his hair.

When Niall breaks the kiss George feels almost lost, his lips already missing the feeling of Niall’s. Niall looks into George’s eyes.

“Oh. Okay. Wow. I didn’t plan for this.” Niall says and he sounds a bit nervous all of a sudden. George blinks in surprise.

“I know, me either, I…”

“Oh god, what am I doing?” And Niall gets up from George’s lap, and starts pacing in front of George, like he’s having an internal struggle with himself. “I can’t just…”

“Uhm, it’s okay, it’s no big deal.” George says and gets up as well. “It was… yeah, I’ll just leave then.”

He starts walking to the door, but Niall grabs his arm.

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Niall protests. “I mean. Wow. I just, I really didn’t… God, why do you have to be so cute?”

And George smiles, stroking away a curl that’s in his eyes. Niall rolls his eyes.

“And now you do that, thank you Shelley, way to make yourself more adorable.”

George can’t help but to laugh, and Niall lunges forward to grab him, holding him close in a tight embrace. George closes his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Niall against him. Niall sighs into George’s chest.

“I understand, Niall.” George says, and he isn’t really sure that he does, but it sounds good to say it anyway. “I mean, you’re in One Direction after all. Biggest boy band right now, and all that. I guess you can’t really be seen with boys.”

Niall snorts.

“Not really. Management would freak out. Like they don’t have enough on their hands with Harry and Louis…”

George’s eyes get bigger than he had intended.

“So that is a real thing then?!”

Niall groans.

“I’m here telling you about my problems and you want to know the truth about Larry Stylinson? This is not a good start of a friendship, George.”

George grins and tightens his grip around Niall’s waist.

“I’m sorry, love.”

“You better be.” Niall mumbles against his chest. “Well, damn. Why did you have to be so cute, it would be so much easier to just ignore you if you didn’t have those eyes. And curls.”

“I’ll shave them off.”

“Don’t you dare.” Niall laughs and pulls him closer into a kiss.

When they break apart George sighs.

“So, this is it then? We should just say goodbye and forget it ever happened, really it would be easier for all of us.”

Niall nods.

“I guess it would be. I don’t really want to do that, though. I’m quite fond of you already.”

George nods and then sighs again. This is so annoyingly difficult. Then a thought crosses his mind.

“Well, maybe they don’t have to know.” He says and glances up at Niall, whose eyes get big when he realizes what George is saying.

“You mean you want us to be each other’s dirty little secret?” Niall asks and a big grin dances on his lips. “Really…”

“Not really dirty little secrets, just…” George laughs. “I mean, no one wouldn’t really question the fact that we could be friends and I mean, if we’re… friends with benefits, no one really has to find out if we’re careful.”

“Really careful.” Niall says and kisses George’s nose. “You do know I have paps up my ass everywhere I go, right?”

“Bragging are we?” George grins and kisses Niall’s nose in return. “Not sure I like you anymore Horan.”

“Shut up Shelley.”

-

When Niall gets back to the hotel he has George’s number in his phone and he is tempted to send him a sappy text right away, asking if he got back to the hotel and everything, but he decides not to do that. They’ve been doing far too sappy things already this early in, he shouldn’t make it worse, maybe he will end up scaring George away.

No, he doesn’t think George would get scared that easily. He doesn’t seem like that kind of guy. Wow, Niall’s been kissing a guy. This was unexpected.

Zayn is in the hotel room when Niall opens the door.

“Where have you been?” Zayn wants to know, looking up from the bed. “Do you even know what time it is?”

“What are you doing in here?” Niall asks, ignoring Zayn’s question for now. “I thought I was rooming with Harry this time around.”

Zayn laughs.

“Oh yeah, and I’m rooming with Louis and do you really think that the both of them was happy about that? No, Louis kicked me out and I got to take Harry’s bed.”

Niall chuckles.

“And what will management think about that, huh?”

“Don’t wanna know, too tired to care.” Zayn says and he sits up in the bed, staring at Niall who takes off his shirt to get in bed. “You still didn’t answer my question!” He yells as Niall goes into the bathroom.

“Gonna brush my teeth!” Niall shouts back, and as he looks at himself in the bathroom mirror he grins. Zayn can be curious for a while longer.

Niall takes his time, and when he gets out of the bathroom Zayn looks like he’s about to explode.

“Niall, where have you been?” His voice is demanding and his eyes are piercing through Niall. “Did you hook up with a girl?”

“Nah, mate.” Niall says and jumps under the covers in his bed, getting cozy. “I just met up with George Shelley, you know, the lad from Union J.”

Zayn has to think for a while, but then it’s like he remembers.

“Oh right, those boys, George… was he the one with the quiff?”

“With the curls.” Niall corrects him. “Don’t you remember, he looks a bit like Harry.”

Zayn whistles.

“Oh right, he’s the bloke people call the lovechild of Larry Stylinson. Now I remember.”

Niall groans.

“Oh right, more rumors. Oh well, that one is kinda hilarious anyway. Well, what did you do all night then? I mean, other than leaving me alone.”

“Sorry about that, mate.” Zayn says and he really does look sorry. “I didn’t mean to, if I had known all the other boys had other plans I wouldn’t have…”

“Doesn’t matter, anyway.” Niall laughs, and it turns into a yawn. “I made a friend, didn’t I?”

“It’s good to make friends.” Zayn nods and then he starts talking about something Niall only half listens to before he drifts off to sleep.

-

George is happy that JJ and Josh still is out when he gets back to the hotel, and that Jaymi seems to be with Olly because his first reaction is to tell the boys everything that happened, but then he remembers that he really can’t, it’s a secret.

When there’s time for breakfast the next morning, he tells the boys about meeting Niall anyway, hanging out and talking. He makes no mention of the kissing.

“Well, I’m glad you made a friend.” Jaymi beams as he eats his eggs. “Niall seems really nice, down to earth and kind.”

“You can ask him for tips and tricks on how to get famous real quick.” Josh jokes and George laughs, thinking about Niall whining about paparazzi.

“I’ll make sure to do that.”

He drinks his coffee and then he looks at Josh and JJ.

“So, where did you end up last night anyway? After you left me, I mean.”

JJ looks guilty.

“God, George. I am really sorry about that, okay. But apparently it was great that we left you alone, since you made a new friend and all?”

George tries to be upset at them, but it’s really impossible. He laughs instead.

“Fine, but don’t leave me next time. I can’t just go around making friends everywhere, people will think I’m a social person.”

“You are a social person.” Jaymi grins. “Oh well, we’ll have no time for friend making today anyway, rehearsals, rehearsals everyone!”

George is exhausted when he gets back to the hotel room and finally has time to check his phone after hours of singing and dancing and playing his guitar until his fingers actually hurts. He’s got a text from Niall.

_“In London only 2 more days, time for coffee tomorrow? x”_

George grins and feels stupid for actually grinning, but oh well, no one can see him anyway.

_“Sure, where?”_

-

When Union J gets eliminated from The X Factor George is devastated, but it gets better when Niall calls him up, asking him if he wants to go out and shop for new guitars when they both have some free time, to help him feel better.

George never really could imagine being one that actually shops for guitars like it’s sneakers and yeah, maybe you don’t actually buy a couple of guitars just like that anyway, but to actually be able to afford new ones feels great.

JJ complains a little when George tells the others about his plans.

“You’re never with us anymore!” He says, but George knows he’s mostly joking. “You like Niall more than you like us. You’re not joining One Direction, are you?”

“Never.” George laughs as he puts on his jacket. It’s snowing outside, and it looks beautiful. Christmas is close. “And I don’t spend that much time with him, he doesn’t have that much time for me anyway.”

“Difficult being friends with a famous boy band.” Jaymi sighs and then he grins. “Have fun, love.”

George beams.

“I plan to.”

-

Niall can’t really help smiling like an idiot when he watches George getting out of the taxi and waving. It’s only been like a month of secrets dates but Niall is already completely lost in the curls of George Shelley, completely lost in the way he smiles all the way from his lips up to his brown eyes, and the way he laughs. And not just that, now he’s even wearing a blue beanie that looks just too adorable, Niall just might rip it off him to be able to function properly.

He hopes the people around them doesn’t notice that.

“Hey you.” He greets when George is within talking distance. “I bought you a coffee.”

“Oh, you are a life saver.” George grins and takes the paper cup from Niall, enjoying the warmth, letting his fingers brush Niall’s innocently, but it still causes Niall to get goose bumps all over his skin. “So, where are we going?”

“I know this great store, you just wait.” Niall says and sips coffee from his own cup. “You will love it.”

They run into fans a couple of times on the way there, mostly they recognize Niall but sometimes they even go for George, and Niall smiles secretively when he looks at the girls sobbing over George’s curls in that beanie. He could do the same thing, to be honest.

Thankfully, none of the fans they run into follow them, so when they get to the music store they are alone, except for the clerks.

George stares at a couple of acoustic guitars in awe.

“Wow, I want one of everything.” He says breathlessly. Niall grins and leans in to whisper in his ear.

“I’ll buy it for you if you ask nicely.”

George blushes, and Niall feels accomplished. George Shelley blushing? His favorite George Shelley.

“You can’t.”

“No, you wouldn’t be able to carry all of them.” Niall agrees and they move on.

 

They make it to Niall’s hotel room without people noticing, and Niall is really happy about that. He barely has time to close the door before George is in his personal space.

“I missed you.” George breathes out and then they are kissing.

Niall loves this, he loves kissing George, he could kiss George forever.

“Missed you too.” He mumbles, his hands moving up to nuzzle George’s neck as George starts tugging at his shirt, apparently wanting all the clothes to go away. Niall doesn’t complain about that.

-

There’s always those first couple of minutes when they are both naked in bed, when George is so blissfully not caring about the fact that outside this hotel room, outside of the bed, they are just friends. When his fingers map out all the freckles and spots and Niall things on his skin, when Niall is almost sleeping, tired from what they have been doing and not really saying anything, that’s the best part. When George can plant kiss after kiss on Niall’s collarbones and ribs and then his belly, before moving up to his face again, kissing Niall until they are both out of air again. That’s the part that makes everything worth it.

But then there’s always the fact that they have to get up, and get dressed, and go outside acting like it never happened. George could live without that part.

“When are you leaving again?” George whispers into Niall’s ear. Niall groans, like he doesn’t want to think about that, but then he sighs.

“In a couple of days? Spending Christmas with my family back home, and then we’re going to the U.S. We’re gonna celebrate New Year’s there and Harry has relationship duty.”

“Right.” George doesn’t want to be disappointed but it’s difficult. “Will you miss me?”

Niall snorts.

“No, you’re so annoying. Yes you doofus, of course I will miss you. Christ.”

George laughs and kisses Niall again.

“Send me a postcard from the states, then?”

“One filled with love.” Niall mumbles and George is smiling from the inside out. Niall reaches up to kiss him. “And anyway, you will be busy as well, X Factor Live Tour and everything. You’ll have so much fun.”

“Yeah, I’ll send you a postcard from Manchester.” George teases and Niall laughs, grabbing his shoulders to flip him over, so that Niall is on top.

“I’m looking forward to it. Now, I think I’ll have time for another make out session before you have to go. Right?”

George looks at the watch.

“A quick one.” He grins and lets Niall kiss him.


	2. Like the stars above

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, yay! The next one might take a while longer to write though, but I still hope to update next week. I hope you like this.

_I can't do the talk, like the talk on TV, and I can't do a love song, like the way it's meant to be. I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you, I can't do anything, 'cept be in love with you. And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be. All I do is keep the beat... and bad company, now all I do is kiss you through the bars of Orion, Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time. Juliet, when we made love you used to cry.You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die". There's a place for us, you know the movie song. When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?_ (Dire Straits – _Romeo and Juliet_ )

When Niall gets back from the States George is getting ready to go out on tour, and they only have time to meet up for one quick lunch and some secret kisses in the backseat of Niall’s car.

“Being interviewed tomorrow on the Morning show.” Niall grins as he plays with George’s curls, George’s head rested on his lap. “Think they might ask about you actually.”

George laughs and looks up at Niall, who is grinning down at him.

“About me? Why?”

“Dude, you haven’t noticed all the publicity about our friendship? People are crazy about it. They want to know if it’s difficult to be friends with someone from another boy band that you have to compete with.”

“We’re not really competing, though.” George says and Niall grins.

“Nah, but the media likes to think we are. Anyway, prepare to see my sexy ass answer a lot of questions about you. I’ll try to tell them all about how you are in bed.”

George groans and then he laughs again.

“You’d never.”

“Well, I could, but I’d get sued. Anyway, you’re okay with going out on tour then? It will be fun right?” Niall nudges George’s shoulder as George nods, his eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, I can’t wait. It will be great. And to hang out with all the boys again, awesome.”

“Getting jealous over here.” Niall pouts, jokingly. George giggles.

“Gonna kiss that pouty lip away.” He mumbles and leans in to kiss Niall again. Niall is really quite fond of him. Like, really.

“You do realize that when you’re back from your tour, I’m heading back to the U.S. right?” Niall says after kissing George a couple of more times. “This spring is really, really busy.”

George grunts, you can tell from miles away that it’s not what he wants to think about right now.

“Do you have to remind me? Really?”

“Sorry.” Niall says and kisses George’s forehead. “I just… It’s the truth.”

“I know.” George sighs and puts his arm around Niall, pulling him closer. “This is a tricky relationship.”

“You’re the best boyfriend though.” Niall says and he can feel himself blush a little, and so does George. It isn’t often they say the boyfriend-word, even though it’s the only thing that fits. They are boyfriends, must be.

“You should come with me on tour.” George mumbles, his forehead leaning against Niall’s. “As my guest.”

Niall grins, stroking George’s arm.

“I might just take you up on that offer.”

George eyes sparkle when he hears that.

“Really? You’d do that?”

Niall feels a bit guilty and then he shakes his head.

“I’m sorry love, I just can’t. I’ll be busy with everything, we don’t get many days off… I’m sorry.”

George sighs.

“I know. I wish you could though.”

-

George tries not to make a big deal about getting up early to watch Niall on the Morning show. After all, even though everyone knows about their friendship, he doesn’t know if the other boys would find it weird that he gets up extra early on a day off just to see his friend being interviewed once again.

But George likes this, he likes watching Niall. It isn’t that strange to like it, he loves the way Niall handles the questions, and the camera, and the way he never seems nervous. And also, the fact that he is gorgeous isn’t really bad either.

He puts the volume to low, so that the other boys won’t wake up (staying in the same room was a bad idea, thank god that all of them are heavy sleepers) and gets comfortable in front of the TV.

It only takes a couple of minutes before the show host introduces One Direction, and all the five boys come out to sit on the sofa. Niall is beaming, and he is dressed in a blue shirt and white pants that really makes him look even more gorgeous and George feels weak to the knees. Thank god he is sitting down.

It takes a few questions about the upcoming tour, the recent album, and the normal amount of Harry Styles before the host turns to Niall.

“Let’s talk about George Shelley.” The host says, and Niall’s smile widens. Maybe a bit too much, George is worried people will read into that, but then decides not to care. “You’re good friends, right? Why’s that?”

“Met during the X Factor, while all of our band mates decided to ditch us at the same time.” Niall jokingly looks darkly at the rest of the boys, and then he laughs. “Anyway, we realized we had a lot in common and we’ve been friends ever since.”

“They’re pretty much never apart from each other.” Zayn cuts in with a laugh. “Whenever we have time off, Niall runs off to meet George.”

“It’s disgustingly sweet.” Louis adds, and then they all laugh. Niall grins.

“Well, Union J is said to be next One Direction, they are going on tour and will have a single out this summer.” The host says, and George is thankful, so thankful, they didn’t ask more about how _disgustingly sweet_ he and Niall are. “Isn’t there a lot of rivalry between the bands? Doesn’t that make it difficult to stay friends?”

“No, not really.” Niall says. “There isn’t that much rivalry, to be honest. We do our thing, they do their thing. That’s all.”

George can’t help but smile when he watches Niall, and then Josh starts moving in the bed.

“Are you up, Georgie?” He mumbles, and looks lazily at the TV. “What are you watching?”

“Just a morning show.” George says and quickly turns off the TV, he doesn’t know why he does it. He isn’t supposed to make a big deal about it. Josh grunts and then he falls back onto the pillow.

-

_“Did I look good then?! x”_

George smiles at the screen of his phone and hope that no one notices him grinning like an idiot. The other boys are talking to Rylan though about the show tonight so he’s safe for now.

_“You looked so good, babe. Had to turn it off half way in though, did you say anything else about me?”_

_“Just about the way your curls dance when you’re blowing me, lol jk, call me after the show?”_

_“Ok xx”_

George can’t even hid his grin so he makes an excuse to go to the bathroom so that no one will notice him grinning, splashing his face with water before going outside again. This is crazy, he’s like a teenager all over again, like he’s 13 and has his first crush, it isn’t even funny, but it’s true.

-

Niall can’t wait for rehearsals to end, and then he has to go to dinner with the rest of the boys (he doesn’t really mind it, it just that it takes forever for them all to finish eating and he just wants to get back home).

When he’s finally at home though it’s late and he hesitates for a while about calling George, he might be out or sleeping already, no energy left after the show, but then again, he really wants to hear George’s voice so he hits the call button without thinking more about it.

George picks up right away.

“Hi babe.” Niall says, feeling warm inside. “How did it go?”

“Oh it went great, we had so much fun and god, so many applauses!” George is practically beaming through the phone and Niall can’t help but laugh.

“I bet. So you didn’t mess up your solo then?”

George giggles and Niall wants to _die_ because he’s so adorable. It really isn’t fair that someone like George Shelley is real, the curls, giggles, his face should all be illegal. He can totally see why all the girls scream when they see him.

“No, it went fine.”

“Listen, I’ve got a few days off.” Niall says, tapping a pen to a notebook next to him. “You want to meet up? I know you’re heading to Nottingham, but I just thought…”

“Yes, yes, please, let’s meet.” George almost begs, and Niall smiles. “I’ll give you the address to the hotel we’re staying at.”

“Great.” Niall smiles and feels pathetic but he is already counting down the hours until he gets to hold George again. “Say hi to the boys from me!”

“You too, love.”

-

“When are you going to the U.S., Niall?” Jaymi asks over dinner. Niall joined the boys after one of the shows and they decided to go out to dinner all of them. Niall swallows the pasta.

“In a few weeks. We’ll do a couple of concerts there, and then we’ll be heading back to Europe.”

Josh dreamily spins pasta onto his fork.

“Man, I can’t wait to go on tours like that. Like, see different continents and countries and just… wow.”

“Sadly it’s mostly airports.” Niall laughs and drinks some water. “But uhm, yeah. Still fun of course. I’m sure you will go on a big tour soon, just gotta get that single out.”

“We’re working on it!” JJ laughs and Niall looks over at George who is smiling.

 

When they manage to sneak away from everyone without it looking weird, Niall spends the rest of the night in bed with George, examining every part of George’s body, kissing and licking until George is almost giggling because it tickles, and hides under the covers in the bed.

“I don’t wanna go.” Niall complains. “Keep me here, please.”

George laughs and grabs Niall’s arms, pulling him down on top of him again.

“Forever.” He whispers and Niall looks into his brown eyes and wow, Niall could very well be very much in love with this boy.

“Hey, I was thinking…” Niall mumbles, his lips pressed against George’s neck. “Maybe I should suggest you guys opening up for us on our Europe tour. I mean, it would be great for you, right? I’m sure everyone would think it was a good idea.”

George is quiet and his grip around Niall stiffens. Niall looks up.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” He asks and George actually looks a bit pissed. He doesn’t say anything and Niall lets his fingers brush his cheek.

“Georgie?” He asks and George shakes his head.

“I don’t… Don’t do that.”

“What did I do now?” Niall asks and really, he doesn’t understand. George speaks through gritted teeth and he’s almost shaking.

“It’s like… You can’t do that. Like. Don’t give me that. You know I… I don’t want it to look like I’m using you. This. Us. It’s not…”

“George.” Niall looks at George and can’t believe how he interpreted it so wrong. “George, I know you’re not using me. It’s not… It’s not like that, I just thought…”

“It’s not a good idea.” George said and his eyes are almost teary now, and Niall’s throat feels dry. “I can’t… I don’t want it to be like that. Please, don’t make it out to be like that”

”Okay.” Niall whispers and he puts his head on George’s shoulder. “I won’t, never.”

“Okay.” George breathes out, and Niall can feel the tension leave his body. “I’m sorry, I just…”

“It’s okay.” Niall mumbles.

They lay there quiet for a while. Niall listens to George’s heartbeat. They are steady, Niall loves it. Loves George. So much. George lets his fingers get tangled in Niall’s hair, pulling him in for a kiss.

“I don’t want you to leave.” George whispers and Niall wants to cry because he doesn’t want to either, he wishes he could stay with his arms and legs tangled with George’s forever.

“I don’t want to. But I have to. It’s not for long.”

“Feels like it’s for too long.” George mumbles and Niall agrees, he agrees so much.

“Do you… You could come visit me.” Niall whispers. “We have one weekend off while in the U.S., I could… You could meet up with us. It’s after the tour, maybe you could…”

George’s eyes almost sparkle when he meets Niall’s eyes.

“I could? Really?”

“Yes.” An amused smile dances on Niall’s lips. “And look, I’m sorry about the opening act-thing…”

“It’s no big deal.” George mumbles and then he kisses Niall again. “Do I get to share a room with you if I come to the U.S.?”

Niall grins and let his hand move over George’s body.

“Only if you let me take advantage of you.”

-

George is such a mix of feelings when the X Factor tour ends. It’s been great fun, even though they’ve been so busy and hardworking, and he misses Niall terribly since they’ve had no time for each other, and Niall left a couple of days ago. Now because of the time difference, even text conversations or Skype calls is difficult to get time for. It’s difficult.

Niall sends him pictures from all the venues they are playing. It’s big and so many fans there and George is so happy for Niall, and also a bit jealous that he isn’t there.

 _“Only 6 days to go! x”_ Niall texts one night and George smiles.

_“I can’t wait to see you babe”_

_“Are the other boys okay with you leaving then?”_

George sighs. He hasn’t actually told the others yet. Not really. They are working on their first song and they have gotten time off those days George will be leaving for the U.S. but he still hasn’t told them. He doesn’t really know why, he’s just maybe afraid that they will say something about it, how it’s weird.

 _“Of course.”_ He lies in the next text. _“Are your boys okay with me coming out to see you?”_

_“Yeah, of course! Especially Louis and Harry. They think our friendship will keep the attention away from… their thing.”_

George tries not to laugh.

-

When George tells the other boys he’s leaving to meet up with Niall in the U.S., Josh and JJ are extremely jealous. Happy for him though, they hug him before they head out to party with Jahmene and Rylan. George says he’s too tired (really he wants to be home in case Niall has time to call him on Skype) and Jaymi decides to stay in too.

When JJ and Josh have left, Jaymi sits down next to George on the sofa.

“George…” Jaymi’s voice is almost careful and George swallows, not really sure why he is suddenly nervous.

“Yeah?” He hopes his voice sounds normal.

“You’re going to the U.S. just to meet your friend for a few days?”

“Uhm, yeah, it was Niall’s idea, he…”

“He’s flying you out to the U.S.?” Jaymi’s eyes narrow at George. George shrugs.

“Yeah, they’ve got a weekend off or something and he wanted to show me… he’s a good mate, right?”

“Yeah, he’s good. Really good.” Jaymi says and his voice sounds strange, and George feels cold inside, because the way Jaymi looks at him is like he’s figured something out and that is not good. George swallows again and knows he is probably right now making a shit job at trying to act like they are just friends, nothing else. He tries to get back on track.

“Anyway, since we have a few days off I figured I’d go for it, I’ve never been to the U.S.” George continues, and Jaymi keeps looking at him.

“George…” Jaymi says slowly. “You’d tell me if…”

“Tell you what?” George asks nervously, really hoping that Jaymi won’t ask, because he’s not sure if he can actually deny it, actually lie to Jaymi’s face if he really asks him this. Jaymi is about to continue the question when his phone rings.

George wants to cry with relief when Jaymi goes into the other room to take the call from Olly. This isn’t easy at all.

 _“I think Jaymi starts to suspect something.”_ George texts Niall, knowing he probably is busy so he isn’t expecting a reply. He doesn’t get one either.

He’s about to go to sleep when his phone buzzes.

_“No?! How?”_

_“He thinks it’s weird I’m going to the U.S. just to meet you, I’m sorry, I know I said that they were okay with it but I actually just told them and I think he… I don’t know.”_

It takes a while for Niall’s reply to come, and George is really nervous that he will be angry at him. The reply isn’t angry though.

_“Shit. I hope he will let it go. You’re still coming, right?”_

George wants to cry.

_“Ofc, I don’t want to be away from you.”_

_“Me either.”_

-

Niall feels pathetic when he’s waiting for George’s plane to land, but he can’t help himself. He’s nervous excited and he can’t even stand still. He’s dressed himself in a beanie, a jacket and sun glasses, and even though he knows he must look really ridiculous he doesn’t want any media or fans to find him today. Today he just wants to wait for George.

No autographs, no photos, no comments to the media. He just wants him and George and that’s it.

When the passengers starts getting off the plane, Niall jumps up on one of the chairs in the airport, looking for George’s curls. Soon enough he sees him and Niall hearts actually skips a beat. George looks tired and his clothes are wrinkly yet he looks absolutely adorable and Niall wants to kiss him right there and now.

Niall jumps down from the chair and quickly make his way to George, grabbing his arm which has the curly head yelping in surprise.

“Hush, it’s just me.” Niall grins and he can’t help it, he just have to plant a kiss on George’s cheek. “How was your flight?”

“Niall!” George’s adorable smile widens and he looks at the beanie and sun glasses. “Trying out for a spy movie are you?”

“Shut up, Shelley, this is a great outfit.” Niall snorts and George’s laughter is so real and beautiful and perfect. “If you’re not nice, maybe I won’t take you back to the hotel. And you look like you’re in great need for some sleep.”

“I’m in need for other things as well.” George whispers and Niall groans.

“Stop, you can’t say that when we’re in public. Back to the hotel, _now_.”

-

They barely make it inside before Niall is on George and George kisses him with all the passion he can muster. George’s bags drops to the floor and so does their jackets, and George can half mumble that the room looks great and ask about the other boys before Niall pushes him onto the bed.

George moans as Niall starts unbuttoning his extremely wrinkly shirt, kissing his exposed skin all the way from his chest down to the lining of his jeans, starting to unbutton them as well.

“Missed you.” George breathes out as Niall unzips him, and Niall looks up at him, grinning as he cups his cock with one hand.

“I can tell.” He mumbles before he proceeds to undress George completely and letting his mouth do the things that have George gasping for air, begging for more and tossing and turning in bed.

-

George is sleeping heavily and Niall watches him, letting him sleep because god, he must be exhausted from jetlag and everything, and even though Niall wants to take him out, he isn’t going to wake him up before he’s slept enough.

Also, just looking at George sleeping is kind of a great way to spend a day anyway. Niall would happily do that every day for the rest of his life.

When George sleeps his curls floats all over the pillow, and his fingers curls around the blankets, and a half smile dances on his lips, like he’s dreaming of something nice and Niall loves that. He wishes he looked that good while sleeping, but no, when he’s sleeping there’s mostly a mess of limbs in blankets and drool. Not that gracious.

After a while Niall reaches out to touch George’s face. The soft touch has George giggle a little in his sleep and Niall wants to explode.

“Tickles.” George mumbles, eyes still closed.

“Sorry.” Niall smiles and leans in to kiss his neck. “Better?”

“Mhm.” George smiles and his hand moves up to touch Niall’s arm. “Again.”

Niall kisses him again, and when he moves in for a third kiss, George moves his face, and they end up kissing instead. George’s tongue is soft and still a bit sleepy, and Niall kisses him almost carefully, like he isn’t really sure George is actually here and not a figment of his imagination.

When they break off the kiss George sighs.

“I love you.” He mumbles, eyes still closed. Niall doesn’t mean to gasp, but he does. Startled George opens his eyes.

“Oh god, I’m sorry, that’s too soon, oh god, I shouldn’t, I’m sorry, I just…”

“No, no.” Niall calms him down, placing his hands on his cheek, looking at George’s newly awake eyes. “I… George, I…”

“I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have…” George mumbles, looking like he will start crying. “I’m stupid.”

“No. You’re not stupid.”

“Yes I am, you can’t just go around telling people you love them…”

“Well, you can, if they love you back. Which I do. You.” Niall know he’s babbling and now he’s blushing too, and so is George.

They stare at each other.

“Can you love someone you’re not allowed to date openly?” George whispers and Niall shrugs.

“Ask Harry.”

George grins a bit.

“Are we talking about Larry Stylinson again?”

Niall groans and throws a pillow at George’s grinning face.

“You’re so stupid.”

“Yet you love me.” George grins, apparently already not bothered by saying the _I love you_ first. Niall sighs.

“I guess I’m stupid too. Such an idiot.”

George pulls him closer.

“My idiot.” He corrects him and Niall happily leans in for another kiss.

-

George is really happy when he and Niall manages to get pretty much all of the days to themselves, sneaking out to restaurants hoping that no one will notice them, and going to tourist attractions that the other boys didn’t want to see.

“You guys are strange.” Liam comments one night. “I can’t believe you want to see all those boring things. Like the big ball of yarn, seriously?”

“It wasn’t yarn!” Niall defends them, a bit cranky. George can tell he doesn’t mean to be, but he feels the same as Niall, he’s going home tonight and the days have passed too quickly. Liam backs away, hands in the air.

“Woah, woah, stepping away.”

“I’m sorry.” Niall mutters. When they are alone George pulls him into a hug.

“We’ll see each other soon.” He whispers. “It will be okay.”

“I know it will be.” Niall whispers back, looking at the door to see no one is about to walk into the room, and then sneaks a kiss from George’s lips. “I just wish it wasn’t like this. I don’t want to hide.”

“I know.” George mumbles, and he doesn’t want to hide either. “But you said…”

“I know, we can’t. Tt wouldn’t be a good idea, not the slightest.” Niall mumbles. “Management would freak out. They’re really… yeah. We just shouldn’t.”

“When you come back and it’s your Europe tour at least we will be closer to each other.” George whispers and he holds Niall close, afraid to let go. “I mean, and there won’t be weird time differences or anything.”

“I know.” Niall whispers and kisses George again. The kiss is slow, romantic, perfect. George is so very much in love with this Irish boy, so very much in love. George didn’t even know you could be this much in love.

“Are you sure it will be okay?” Niall whispers and George nods.

“Yes. We’ll be okay. And nobody knows about us.”

Niall chuckles.

“They don’t know about the I love you:s”

George gasps in played surprise.

“Niall Horan, are you quoting your own songs? Not okay!”

Niall laughs and pulls George closer again into an even tighter hug before letting go.

“Well they don’t.” He says, and his blue eyes sparkle and George’s knees go weak. He really doesn’t want to leave this. Never.

This is perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are greatly appreciated x Love you all!


	3. Tell me you love me too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, turns out I just can't stop writing this fic, so here's a new chapter already! I apologize for the angst and maybe the upcoming chapter will be a bit like that too... Hope you like it anyway!
> 
> ALSO I've been playing around with characters and what not and everything is fiction and not real and all that.

_I don't wanna fall asleep, 'Cause I don't know if I'll get up. And I don't wanna cause a scene, but I'm dyin' without your love. Begging to hear your voice. tell me you love me too. 'Cause I'd rather just be alone if I know that I can't have you_ (Jonas Brothers – _Can’t have you_ )

It starts when George gets back from the U.S. When he gets off the plane and walk out into the airport, suddenly there is a lot of paparazzi, screaming girls and reporters practically jumping him. He really doesn’t understand why, okay that there’s sometimes fans waiting for Union J, and some media people wanting a picture or comment but this? This is madness. Something must be wrong.

George spots about twelve photographers and five reporters, at least, and more than 50 screaming people all holding newspapers George can’t really ready. Just when they are about to actually jump him, screaming his name, one of the airports security people grabs his arm.

“Come with me, Mr. Shelley.” He says in a cold, dark voice and George follows him. Other people help keep the paparazzi away from them.

He’s being lead through a personnel entrance, and when he’s outside there’s a car waiting for him. The security person nods at the car.

“They are waiting. You should get out of here before they realize where you went.”

“Who… uhm, thanks.” George stumbles over the words, he isn’t really sure on what to say. The person just nods, and without even giving George his name, he disappears into the airport again.

George walks towards the car, and one of the doors opens. He recognizes JJ’s arm.

“Come inside, George.” Says a voice that George recognizes as Cas, from their management. George bites his lips and get in the car.

In the car Cas is sitting, along with JJ, Josh and Jaymi. They are all staring at George with faces that could be anything from disappointed to angry and George is just about to ask why when Jaymi holds up a copy of _The Sun_.

“You were _seen_.” Jaymi almost spits out and George swallows, he wants to jump out of the car and go back onto the plane and back to Niall because the way his band mates and Cas are looking at him now? Almost hostile. “I asked you George, I asked you if there…”

“Who…” George doesn’t finish the question, instead he takes the magazine from Jaymi. Front page is a big picture of Niall and George, coming out from one restaurant they went to, holding hands. There’s a smaller, a bit blurrier picture as well of them sharing a kiss.

Face flushing red, George opens up the magazine to see a two pages article about him and Niall, headline being “Boybanders secretly dating?” and then quotes from Niall and George, in old interviews about their friendship, some comments from people seeing them together and apparently also some mention of a post on tumblr, with proof that Niall and George are in fact not just friends, but indeed a couple.

When George looks up from the magazine again, everyone is still staring at him.

“I just got off the phone with One Direction’s management.” Cas says, and he doesn’t look too happy about that. “They are really not thrilled about this. They’re in meetings right now about what they should do to get the public to forget this happened. How to make them see that it’s not real.”

“You lied.” JJ says, and he shakes his head. “I really thought…”

“So what?” George asks and now he’s got tears in his eyes and he hates this, he hates that he cries so easily, but he also hates how they are attacking him like this. “I don’t care, I want them to know, I like him, I… I thought you’d understand, none of you are straight, I’d…”

“It’s not about who’s straight or not.” Josh says, interrupting Cas who was just about to say something. “But it’s about lying, you’ve been keeping this a secret for how long? Too long, George. And it doesn’t feel that good to know you’re involved with…”

“You didn’t have a problem with him before.” George spits out and he wants to scream. “You all like him. Why is it different now, just because you know that I’m in a relationship with him?”

Cas shakes his head.

“We have to get back to the office, we’ll discuss this further when we’re there.” He looks at George with eyes you look at misbehaving kids with. “We will fix this.”

-

It could have been worse, Niall thinks. He actually thought that Louis would hit him, but he didn’t. They just yelled. And mostly they didn’t yell at Niall, just at their Management.

So Management actually yelled a little at him. There’s one woman, Niall couldn’t even bother to learn her name went on and on about image and the public and how he could be so selfish and like if they don’t have enough problems already. Shoving the contract in his face she then went on about the rules and how they actually had agreed to a certain image.

Image did not include a boyfriend for any of them. Especially not from another boy band that they are competing with.

“We’re not competing!” Niall protests and look to his band mates for support, but they all look a bit too angry to give him that. “He’s just… There are lots of boy bands, they don’t bother us. And I like him.”

“You have a _contract_.” The woman says and her eyes are shooting evil darts at Niall.

“Screw the contract.” Niall mutters under his breath but no one hears him. Instead the woman turns to Zayn.

“I’ve been in meetings with the directors all morning, they think the best thing to do this is deny it, and then we’ll have a story out about you cheating. It will probably get big, and people will ignore this, especially if we also send out a tweet from Niall about how he could never actually date anyone from a boy band who isn’t even out with a single yet.”

Zayn shakes his head and Niall takes a step forward.

“Don’t touch my account.”

“I don’t cheat.” Zayn protests but the woman is firm when she looks at them, clearly there is no room for discussion on this matter. Zayn looks furious.

“And you two stay away from each other.” She stares at Harry and Louis, who is sitting at opposite end of a sofa and they both stare back.

“We’ll move to different continents, is that okay?” Louis says, his voice almost like poison, but the woman doesn’t care. She turns to Liam instead.

“You and Danielle will go on a double date with Eleanor and Louis. We’re flying them both out tonight. We’ll take you to a fashion show.”

“Why do I have to do this just because Niall…” Louis starts, but then Harry gets up from the sofa and leaves, and Louis just shakes his head, and then he gives Niall a dark look before he runs after Harry.

“I’ll have the story about you out tomorrow.” The woman tells Zayn who looks like he might cry or explode from anger any second. “It will be an air hostess this time.”

“Fine. Fine.” Zayn says through gritted teeth and without even looking at Niall he leaves the room as well.

The woman looks through her papers before eyeing Niall and Liam, who are the only ones left in the room.

“That is all. And you don’t hang out with George Shelley anymore.”

“You can’t make me do that.” Niall whispers and the woman look darkly at him.

“You will not be seen in public.” She says and then she waves her hand. “You can leave now. Go patch things up with your friends, I don’t want you to seem like you’ve been fighting when you go on tonight.”

“What were you thinking?” Liam asks as they leave the room. Niall looks at him.

“I just…”

“You really should have told us. Or just stay away from him. Is it really worth it all just for a fling?”

Niall stops in the corridor and turns to Liam.

“Liam, it’s not just…”

“I don’t care.” Liam says and shakes his head. “I don’t care if you’re two parts of the same soul or if you’re destined to be with each other or if it’s true love, I don’t care. You know we can’t. You know what happens.”

And he quickens his paste and leaves Niall, probably to go to Zayn. Niall is left alone.

Okay, so maybe it did turn out pretty bad.

-

George phone buzzes just when he’s out from a meeting with Management and he is so tired of everyone discussing his private life and the other boys looking at him with judging eyes, and he just wants to hide and for a second he doesn’t even want to look at his phone, but then he realizes that maybe it’s Niall so he picks up the phone. Niall’s text is all in caps and even through the words it looks like he’s freaking out.

_“Omg baby plz don’t believe any of it, IT’S NOT ME I PROMISE, I’d never say that, please please, I’ll call you later to explain ok, I LOVE YOU”_

George doesn’t understand what it means and just as he’s about to text Niall back and ask him about it, JJ walks into the room, without even knocking.

“Your boyfriend…” JJ speaks the words as if they hurt him. “Isn’t that nice, is he? Trying to save his own butt by making us look bad, is that is?”

“What are you talking about?” George asks and feels how he is really getting more and more confused by the second. JJ shoves his phone in George face, it’s logged into their twitter.

“Look at this.” JJ says darkly, and George reads from the screen.

_@NiallOfficial Loving how The Sun makes up rumors. Like I’d date copycat boybanders, no thank you! Still single, ladies! X_

“He’s a jerk, he’s making us look like idiots.” JJ says and George swallows, trying hard to ignore the lump in his throat and the pain in his heart, but then he realizes something.

“It’s not him.” He says silently, and JJ blinks.

“What do you mean?”

George meets JJ’s eyes.

“It’s not him tweeting. It’s his management. They… They do that, don’t you remember that they do that? They’ve taken control of his account.” George feels himself smiling and he feels warm when he looks at Niall’s text. “It’s not him.”

JJ shakes his head, like he isn’t really sure he should believe this.

“Their management is mental.”

“Yes.” George whispers and then JJ sits down next to him on the bed.

“George, I’m sorry that we cornered you.” He whispers and pulls George closer in a hug which George thankfully accepts. “It’s just, we were so shocked to see it. I really thought you were just friends. And it’s just… I thought you’d tell us.”

“I wanted to.” George whispers. “We both wanted to tell you, it’s just that… He’s not allowed to… You know.”

JJ looks darkly out in the room, like he’s picturing going through what Niall is going through.

“Thank god we didn’t sign with them.”

George laughs a little. It’s a bit fake, but not entirely.

“They wouldn’t want us, we’re too gay for them.”

JJ laughs.

“Probably, yeah.”

They sit there quiet for a while before George clears his throat, looking up at JJ.

“Are the others mad at me?”

JJ shakes his head.

“No, they’re not mad. Just a bit shocked, that’s all. And I think our management is mostly just pissed at One Directon’s management, apparently they’re giving us a hard time.”

“I bet.” George mumbles, and JJ squeezes his shoulder.

“You should call him, talk to him.” JJ nods and gets up from the bed. “I think you both need that.”

George looks at his phone, where Niall’s text is still visible.

“I think I will. Thank you.” He whispers to JJ, and JJ smiles.

-

Niall is so thankful he could cry when he hears his phone buzzing and notices that George is calling him. He picks up without even thinking about it, not caring about the fact that they are about to go to sound check in just a couple of minutes.

“Hi.” He breathes out. “It wasn’t me, please believe…”

“I know.” George’s voice is a bit weak, but it’s still George and Niall is so, _so_ thankful for that. “You wouldn’t write that”

“I really wouldn’t.”

“I know.”

For a couple of seconds they are both silent, and Niall doesn’t really know what to say but he really just enjoys listening to George breathing. When George speaks again his voice is really shaky.

“I’m sorry, I just… I really miss you.” He says and Niall feels like his heart is being stomped on, because it shouldn’t be like this, he should be with George, not on the other side of the globe.

“I’ll be back soon.” Niall whispers and feels a tear trickle down his cheek. “I’ll be back real soon.”

“Will we be able to see each other then?” George asks and Niall can practically feel the tears streaming down his face, and Niall wants to reach out and wipe them off, this isn’t fair.

“The others will be a bit…” He says, but he doesn’t really feel like talking about his band mates, or his management. “But it will be okay.”

“They gave you a hard time, didn’t they?” George asks and Niall doesn’t want to lie, he really doesn’t want to.

“They’re not happy with me right now. Mostly I think they’re pissed at Modest! though. They’re getting a story out about Zayn cheating to get attention off of me, and Harry and Louis aren’t allowed to interact at all anymore until this whole thing… And they’re flying Eleanor out, so Harry is a mess. Yeah I just…” Niall sighs, and feels the tears building up in his eyes.

“I’m so, so sorry Niall.” George whispers. “I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s not your fault. It will be okay.” Niall whispers, but he doesn’t know if he believes himself. “Just…”

“Niall, we’re leaving for sound check.” Liam’s voice interrupts him. Niall nods.

“George, I have to go.” He says. “Please, I’ll be back in a few days, please just… Can we meet then? Like, right away?”

“Yes please.” George says and Niall wants to kiss him so bad, wants nothing more than to just hold him.

“I love you.” Niall whispers into the phone, and George takes a shaky breath.

“I love you too.”

-

George doesn’t want to be pathetic or weak, but he really can’t handle this anymore. So he curls up in his big double bed and cries silently, until there’s a knock on the door and JJ, Jaymi and Josh enters.

“Oh, Georgie.” Jaymi breathes out and he looks devastated. “I’m so sorry.”

“Did you break up?” Josh asks silently and all three of them lay down next to George, holding him close as they let him cry onto their shoulders.

“No…” George sobs into JJ’s shirt. “I just… Their management is such dicks.”

“Yeah, I just got off the phone with Zayn.” Jaymi says and he shakes his head. “The things they make them go through…”

George blinks in surprise.

“Zayn called?”

Jaymi nods and let his fingers wipe away a few of George’s tears.

“He wanted to know how we were doing, with all the madness. I think he was a bit worried actually.”

“I didn’t think he’d do that.” George mumbles, and Josh smiles.

“We care, George. We just… it’s so complicated.”

“Do you really like him, George?” JJ asks, hugging George tightly and George nods.

“I do. I really do. I’ve never… I’ve never felt like this before, for anyone.”

“Aw.” Jaymi says and hugs George tighter as well, and so does Josh, and George feels how oxygen is becoming an issue but he really doesn’t care. “Our little Georgie, in love.”

-

Niall is exhausted when the plane finally lands on Heathrow and they can get off. The last week was crazy, he’s received more hate than ever before, and it’s taken all of his energy to get the band to actually stop being mad at him, and on top of all this he had to smile to reporters and sing his heart out on stage and he’s just so tired. There’s nothing else he wants to do then to hold George in his arms, but he’s not sure that they will be able to do that.

As soon as they get out from the airport (thankfully not that many fans around) a limo takes them to their houses. First they secretly drop Harry and Louis off (neither of them are really that happy with Niall so it’s just a cold goodbye), and then Zayn and later Liam, until there’s only Niall left. Paul, their driver, takes one look at Niall in the backseat.

“You want to go home Niall, or should I drop you off at George’s?”

Niall blinks in surprise, because that was not what he had expected.

“You… you could do that? I’m allowed to go see him?” His voice is a bit bitter, and he doesn’t mean to be, because this certainly isn’t Paul’s fault, but Niall is just so tired of being a piece in their games, and it feels like the world is against him. Paul smiles at him.

“You know what, I know your contract sucks. You shouldn’t have to go through this. I think you should go see your boy, no one will see you anyway. Just stay in, have fun. You must miss him.”

“So much.” Niall breathes out. “Do you know where he lives? He’s moved…”

“They keep track.” Paul snickers and then he takes a left. “I’ll have you there in half an hour.”

-

JJ and Jaymi went back to their place for an hour ago or so, and Josh had a thing to do with his parents, which has left George alone in his apartment. Before leaving, Jaymi went out and bought him lots of ice cream though, so George has positioned himself in front of the TV, watching scary movies all by himself, and eating so much chocolate ice cream he might get sick, but he doesn’t really care.

When the doorbell rings he is tempted to just ignore and pretend he isn’t home, but that would be really stupid, so he puts down the ice cream and goes to open up.

When he notices Niall outside he thinks he might faint.

Niall is just standing there, his blonde hair tucked in under a snapback, his blue eyes look tired but still sparkly, and he’s dressed in khaki shorts, soccer jersey that must be too big for him, and all of his clothes are wrinkly and he looks like he’s about to faint from exhaustion but he’s Niall and… _He’s Niall_.

“Hi.” Niall says, almost nervously and waves his hand a little. “Uhm, our driver dropped me off, is it okay if I stay…”

“Niall!” George breathes out and then he jumps Niall, their bodies clashing together in the tightest embrace George has ever experienced and his arms are around Niall’s neck as Niall’s arms are around his, really, really tight and George will never let go, _never_.

“I missed you.” Niall mumbles and George can feel something wet on his shoulder and realizes that Niall is crying into his shirt and George’s eyes fills with tears as well. “Oh god, George, I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too.” George whispers with tears streaming down his face. “I missed you so much, so so much, more than I thought I could miss anyone.”

“Let’s never be apart again.” Niall mumbles and then he breaks the embrace, pulling away from George just to wipe away his tears on the sleeves of his shirt. “I’m sorry, I’m such a mess. In my defense, it was a long flight and I’m really tired.”

George can’t help but laugh, and he wipes away his tears as well. They are both kind of a mess, really. George picks up one of Niall’s suitcases.

“Let’s get inside.” He says and steps to the side so Niall can enter. “Just so… no one sees us.”

“Good plan.” Niall says and takes his other suitcase, and they head into George’s apartment.

-

They didn’t get much talking done, mostly because Niall was so, so tired and after a cup of tea and some kisses he fell asleep against George’s shoulder, and George didn’t have the heart to wake him up. Instead he lifted Niall up and carried him to the bedroom, tucking him in so that he could get a night good sleep.

It was kind of heroic, really.

George spent a bit more time than he will ever be okay with admitting to watch him sleep, before he fell asleep himself, feeling the scent of Niall, and the heat from his body, the beats of his heart.

It would be okay to stay like this forever. George wouldn’t mind. He really wouldn’t.

-

When Niall wakes up it’s to the sound of soft guitar chords. At first he doesn’t realize where the sound is coming from, the other boys don’t usually play guitar, but then he realizes that he’s not with them. He’s with George. He’s waking up in George’s bed.

That must mean he fell asleep last night. Oops. Good boyfriend he is.

He blinks at the light streaming into the room, and then he notices George sitting at the end of the bed, only dressed in boxers and with a guitar. He plays a few more chords, not noticing the fact that Niall is up, and then he starts singing softly. Niall feels a bit weak listening to his voice.

“Don’t ever say you’re lonely, just lay your problems on me, and I’ll be waiting there for you. The stars can be so blinding, when you get tired of fighting, you know the one you can look to…”

George’s voice is beautiful. He is beautiful. Niall sits up and softly touches George’s shoulders.

It startles him, and he stops singing and turn around. When he notices Niall a smile dances on his lips.

“You’re awake? Sorry, I woke you up…”

“No, no, I don’t mind.” Niall grins, and watches George. He looks gorgeous like this. “Please, could you sing it for me? Is it your new song?”

George nods, and he blushes a little.

“I’ve never sung it to anyone before. It’s been really secret.”

“I won’t tell.” Niall whispers and George leans in to kiss him.

“I know you won’t.” George whispers, smiling, and then he starts playing the guitar again, singing the song as he looks directly at Niall.

It’s intimate and beautiful and Niall is so lost.

When he’s finished, George puts away the guitar and looks nervously at Niall.

“What did you think? Is it good?” He asks, and Niall lets his hand cup George’s neck, pulling him closer.

“I think this.” He breathes out, and then he kisses George.

Niall takes his time, really enjoying kissing George again, for real, in ways he’s supposed to be kissed. Tasting his lips thoroughly before letting his tongue slip inside George’s mouth, sliding against George’s own and a soft moan escapes through George’s half open mouth.

Niall feels George’s hands on his body, touching his arms and his chest, down to his stomach before tugging at his boxer shorts. Niall’s cock twitches by the feeling of George’s hands. Not wanting to be the one to leave George untouched, Niall lets his hands do the same, and he lets his left hand cup George’s cock, just as George’s hand slip down his boxers, stroking his already really hard erection.

“I…” George gasps, and Niall feels passion and lust take over and he pushes George down on the bed, straddling him.

Kissing all the way from George’s mouth down to the lining of his boxers, Niall then slowly, as George is groaning and moaning, takes off his boxers, then proceeds to take off his own, leaving them both naked.

George naked is the best thing in the world, George naked is something Niall can’t handle, and he lay down on top of George, their erection sliding against each other, slick with precome.

“I want you… inside.” George gasps and Niall groans into George’s neck, so thankful that George wants it because Niall wants nothing else than that right now.

“You’ve got stuff?” He mumbles and George nods as his hands touches Niall’s collarbones, kissing his neck.

“Bottom drawer.”

Niall reaches out and manages to open the drawer without having to let go of George and his lips, and finds a bottle of lube. Squirting some on his fingers, slicking them up, he then lets his fingers trace George’s entrance, as the other hand caress his cock.

George tenses up when the first fingers move past the ring of muscle, but Niall kisses him deeply and George breathes out, and then pushing back onto Niall’s fingers, showing him that it’s okay and Niall slips two fingers in, then three, scissoring, touching, opening him up.

Soon George is practically begging for him to fuck him, and Niall is even more turned on hearing naughty words coming from George who looks so innocent that he is surprised that he doesn’t come right there.

“You sure?” He whispers, and George nods.

Niall reaches for the lube again, slicking up his cock before positioning himself at George’s entrance, kissing him deeply before sliding inside, practically seeing stars as their bodies move together.

-

George breathes heavily afterwards, and Niall has collapsed on top of him after his orgasm. George let his fingers tangle in Niall’s hair and kisses him softly, wanting to stay like this forever, even if his come is all over his stomach and Niall’s and is starting to get icky.

“We should wash up.” He whispers into Niall’s ear and Niall groans.

“No, I wanna stay here.”

George laughs.

“We can go back to bed afterwards. I have nowhere to be today. I’m all yours.”

Niall smiles into George’s neck.

“I like that. Will you sing me your song again if you’re all mine?”

George can feel himself blushing.

“So you really did like it?” He asks, and Niall nods, kissing his nose.

“It was beautiful. Really, I mean that. I really liked it.”

George breathes out.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t like it.”

“Why wouldn’t I like it?” Niall asks and kisses George softly. “It’s perfect.”

He looks at George and then he grins.

“Especially when you’re singing it to me all naked.”

-

“You know I’ll be linked with other people now, right?” Niall says over dinner. George cooked, a veggie lasagna and they’ve been enjoying it, being silent for a while. George freezes.

“I know.”

“You’ll probably be linked with other people too.” Niall continues and drinks a sip of his water. “They have to do that. I’ll be… Yeah. And I will have to stay away from you most of the time now. Spend more time with the band. Until this all…”

George sighs and chews his lasagna, trying not to let it get to him but it’s really not that easy. He doesn’t want to think about Niall with other people. Ever. He doesn’t want to think about Niall not talking to him because it is just too hurtful.

Niall seems to notice it, because he reaches over the table and touches George’s hand.

“Hey.” He says softly and looks into George’s eyes. “You’re okay, right? You know I’d never… I just can’t control my management. Or the media. But it won’t mean anything. You trust me, right?”

George swallows his food and tries to keep his voice steady.

“I trust you.” He whispers. “I really just hope that… No, I guess I just wish it didn’t have to be like this.”

“I know.” Niall whispers back and his blue eyes are blank. “I wish that too. I just want to be with you. But I can’t… I can’t be selfish right now, it’s for the other boys as well, I have to keep the imagine to…”

“I know.” George says, and he knows how it works, he really does, he just wishes it wasn’t like that. “But we’ll… we’ll be okay right, no matter what? You will be mine?”

Niall puts down his fork and knife and gets up from his chair, walking over to George to pull him up from his chair, hugging him tight.

“I will always be yours, George, okay?” He whispers into George’s ear. “Always. I just… I have to do this. They will… It will get ugly if I don’t.”

George hides his face in Niall’s shirt.

“For how long will you be able to stay now?”

Niall sighs.

“Couple of days. Then I have to go back to be with the band. We’re… we have lots of work to do, you know.”

George nods and rests his head on Niall’s shoulder. It shouldn’t have to be this complicated.


	4. And I'm falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! I hadn't at all planned to post this chapter right now, but it was finished and I realized my computer time will be really limited due to work and travel (and One Direction concert, woop woop!) the upcoming week, so I figured I post this now instead of keeping you waiting. Please tell me what you think of the chapter in the comments, or feel free to discuss it and talk to me on [tumblr!](http://shellett-is-my-oxygen.tumblr.com/)

_The way you always made me look at you, with all the simple things you said. The way so many things surrounded you and all the tears it seemed to make. And now I'm falling, there's nothing left to say. And I can't break free out from in me there. And I can't breathe without you, I can't breathe without you, I can't breathe without you. Without you, without you, without you._ (Busted – _Without you_ )

“Wake up sunshine, I made you pancakes!” Niall chipper like a bird as he kisses George’s cheek. George groans, hiding underneath the sheets, he doesn’t want to leave his comfortable bed just yet.

“Too early.” He mumbles, and blinks at the sudden light. “Just ten more minutes.”

Niall laughs and jumps into bed next to George, kissing his neck and shoulder blades, letting his hands touch a few too many love bites around his neck that Niall might be guilty of leaving there. But he likes them. They are reminders of all the great times they’ve spent together and Niall likes looking at them. He’s got a few on himself as well, and he grins while thinking about it.

“Oh no, boyfriend. Come on and have a proper breakfast with me, you know I have to leave soon.” Niall says and starts tugging the duvet off of George, even though George tries to keep it on him.

George groans again, a little because they are stealing his duvet, but mostly because Niall leaving isn’t a good thing. He sits up and blinks again, his eyes slowly getting used to the light. Niall is beaming at him when he notices him getting up.

“So, you’re gonna come eat my pancakes?”

George looks at Niall and teasingly nudges his arm.

“I don’t know. Can I trust your cooking?” He asks and Niall gasps and looks shocked.

“George Shelley!” He exclaims and shakes his head. “I will pretend that I didn’t hear that.”

-

“So I’ll be a skater in the video.” George says and his eyes sparkle as he tugs in to another pancake. The pancakes was rather delicious, actually. Niall had even sneaked out to buy blueberries and strawberries which George loved, so he was more than happy when he got his plate in front of him. “Snapback, hoodie and everything.”

Niall smiles and drinks his tea, looking at George who really looks excited. Niall can remember how he felt when he was about to shoot his first music video, and he recognizes the spark in George’s eyes. He misses feeling like that, back when everything was just fun. That was before everything started to go downhill, and right now Niall just wants to be back there. Back when his friends didn’t ignore him.

“Sounds hot.” He says and let his fingers brush George’s hand. “And with that song, really hot. You’re almost making me jealous, maybe I should steal the idea. I could totally rock the skater look, and you know I already look hot in a snapback.”

George looks at him and suddenly he looks a bit worried, and Niall bites his tongue for saying something like that.

“You wouldn’t… tell anyone right?” He mumbles and looks down at his plate, piercing one blueberry on his fork. “Because you know, I’m not really allowed to tell anyone about our plans…”

Niall shakes his head and then wipes his mouth with a napkin, because it feels like he’s got pancake syrup all over his face. Not really classy.

“George, no, I’d never… You know you can trust me right? I wouldn’t do that, even if it is a great song.”

George blinks, swallows and then he nods.

“I know, I’m sorry, I just…”

“Hey, I understand.” Niall says softly, and then he looks at the watch over George’s head and curses when he notices what time it is.

“Shit, I really have to get going, they’ll kill me if I’m late. Listen, I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Okay.” George breathes out and Niall looks a bit guilty, but then he walks over to George and kisses him on the cheek.

“And hey, I’m… I’m sorry about it, okay?” He whispers before he run out of the room, grabbing his bag.

“Sorry about what?” George asks, but Niall is already outside and can’t hear him. George falls back into his chair and pushes the plate with the remaining pancakes away from him. He really isn’t that hungry anymore.

George texts Niall to ask what he meant about being sorry, but he doesn’t get a reply which isn’t that strange, he is probably busy working so George forces himself to forget about it and instead focus on getting ready to go see the rest of the boys.

-

Niall wants to groan and complain as he and the other boys head in for another interview about the upcoming Europe tour. When the other boys realized he spent his days off with George, they all grunted a bit and Niall had to live through evil glares from Louis. He really wished he could lay off him. He says so as well, when they get coffee after one of the rehearsals.

“Oh, you feel like you’re being treated bad, Niallster?” Louis asks, his voice is sweet and Niall wants to shiver by the sound of the fake, gleery use of a nickname he’s practically never heard before. “I didn’t mean to. Excuse me.”

“Just stop acting like this.” Niall says, staring at Louis, but Louis blinks and his big, blue eyes look innocent, but Niall knows it’s just a lie.

“Acting like what? I don’t know what you are talking about, but I’m sorry if you feel bad, Niallster.” Louis says, his voice still sweet and innocent.

Niall wants to call Louis out on his bullshit but he doesn’t, instead he just lets it go and tries to talk to the other boys, but they aren’t that happy either, at least not around him. Niall sighs. It isn’t supposed to be this difficult to just get the work done.

So that is why Niall, who is usually quite chipper and okay with going to interviews, is groaning and complaining as they head into the room where the reporters are waiting. It’s almost like a small press conference and the lights from the flashing cameras feel almost blinding. Niall forces himself to smile and the other boys do the same, Liam putting his arm around him in a gesture like they are the bestest of friends, even though they haven’t said a word to each other for hours.

Appearances, appearances. Right.

The boys are seated, Harry and Louis are forced to sit as far away from each other as possible and Harry looks like a kicked puppy dog and Louis looks like he might explode, and Niall feels bad because yes, maybe it is partly his fault, but mostly it isn’t, it’s the fact that their management thinks they need to do this. Niall is seated next to Harry, with Liam next to him, and Zayn closest to Louis.

“I’m sorry about this, I really am.” Niall mumbles when he notices Harry grasping at a piece of paper, some kind of brochure, probably to keep his hands busy. Harry shakes his head.

“Doesn’t matter now, does it.” Harry mumbles, and then it’s like he shakes all of it off, all the feelings and look up with one of his biggest smiles as the reporters walks towards them with questions and flashes from cameras.

Niall hopes that the attention will be turned to Harry Styles as usual, and not to the rumored romance between himself and George Shelley.

He’s not in the mood to lie.

The first reporter thankfully, turns to Harry as expected.

“So, Harry, you’re finally back in England, how does it feel?”

Harry’s smile is wide when he answers. It’s completely fake, Niall can tell and he’s sure the rest of the boys can too, but the media often doesn’t care about whether it’s a fake smile or a real one, as long as it’s a smile.

“It feels great to be back home… Stan.” Harry says, leaning in to read the reporter’s name on the name tag. He does this. Being polite. Personal. Niall understands media loves him. “Even though America is a great country, there’s no place like London, right?”

The other boys chuckle at his Sweeney Todd reference and the reporter looks pleased. He turns to Louis instead.

“Louis, how does this hectic tour schedule affect your relationship? Must be difficult to be away from your girlfriend all the time?”

Louis’ smile is just as fake as Harry’s.

“Oh, yeah, but you know, I still get to do what I love with my best friends in the world, so I’m good.” He says and there’s an _aww_ in the room that makes Niall wants to puke. The boys are anything but best friends right now, but no one seems to notice that. He looks over at their management, who is smiling approvingly, giving them a thumb up.

When one reporter later wants to ask about the rumors about Niall and George, Liam gets attention off of them by snuggling up to Zayn, which has the reporters turning to them instead.

Niall is thankful, but he’s still so tired of being caught in a web of lies.

-

They have a busy week in front of them, working in the studio with the final recording of the single before actually getting ready to shoot the music video.

George is excited, more than excited when he heads to the studio for the last day of recording. He can’t believe this is actually happening to him. It’s been a few days since he’s been able to talk to Niall and that is kind of sad, but this is helping getting his mind off things.  He can tell the other boys are too, because they’re practically bouncing as they head in to the recording studio.

JJ sips his coffee and then puts on arm around George’s shoulder as they head inside.

“You look happy George!” JJ says and smiles at him. “It looks good on you. Niall treating you okay, then?

George nods, and can’t help but smile.

“Yeah, and…” He lowers his voice so that no one around will hear them. “Earlier this week, when he was at my apartment, I even sang him the song. He likes it, he said he really liked it. Isn’t it great? He thinks it will be a hit, like really!”

George can feel his eyes sparkle and JJ blinks as he look at him.

“Oh, that’s great Georgie, better hope he doesn’t tell his group about it then and they steal the idea.” JJ laughs and teasingly pinches George’s shoulder. “Because that wouldn’t be good right?”

George laughs and shakes his head.

“No, it really wouldn’t be. He won’t do that though.”

“You ready for this, boys?” Jaymi and Josh walk up to them, “Almost finished.”

Josh’s eyes are sparkling and so is Jaymi, and George looks at all of them feeling so, so happy that he gets to do this with his best friends in the world.

“Great!”

All holding on to each other they walk into the studio, grinning like maniacs. They all lose their grins though when they notice Cas sitting there. He looks dead serious.

“Uhm, Cas, what are you doing here?” Jaymi asked, looking really confused. “Isn’t this…”

“Boys.” Cas says, and he doesn’t lose his serious face. This is apparently not some kind of joke. “I’m afraid I’ve received some bad news.”

Like on cue, all the other boys sit down in their chairs.

“What kind of bad news?” JJ asks slowly and Cas shakes his head before he continues.

“Sources are telling us that One Direction is recording a new song. To be released in May.”

George blinks.

“But One Direction isn’t recording anything, they’re just preparing to go out on tour, no new songs, Niall would have…”

Cas stares at George and George feels himself sinking back into his chair.

“Boys, I’m afraid that the song they’re said to record is a lot, and I mean a lot, like Carry You. And since this is going so fast, we think it’s safe to say that they are stealing it. Someone must have leaked it to them. This is like I promise you/This I promise you all over again.”

George blinks and looks at the other boys, who look furious. George only kind of knows what Cas is talking about, he remembers there was some dispute between Backstreet Boys and N’Sync in the 90’s, when N’Sync kind of managed to get a hold of Backstreet Boys upcoming single and released one song that sounded a lot like that one before they had the chance, causing Backstreet Boys to not be able to release their single, but he never in his life thought that this could happen to him.

“Niall.” JJ says slowly, and he looks at George. “You sang it to Niall. Your boyfriend stole our song?”

The others turn to George as well, their faces all shocked and filled with disbelief.

“You showed Niall our song?” Jaymi says and he doesn’t look like he wants to believe that he’s hearing this. “You let _Niall_ listen to it?”

“He wouldn’t…” George whispers and tears fill his eyes. “He’d never…”

Josh snorts.

“Of course he would. Maybe it’s all about the money, right? Maybe they’re terrified we’ll get bigger than they are.”

“Now, now.” Cas interrupts and George is so thankful for that. “That Niall knows of this song is a bit… suspicious, but we really don’t know. Sadly, there could actually be a lot of people that could have been paid off to tell One Direction’s management about this song. Sadly.”

“It can’t be Niall, it can’t be.” George mumbles and shakes his head, looking at the other boys who all seemed to have trouble believing what they are hearing.

It can’t be Niall. Why would he? It just can’t be.

And then George remembers Niall saying he’s sorry, and that he hasn’t contacted him in a few days.

And George’s heart _hurts._

He wants to get up and leave, he wants to call Niall right away and talk to him about this, hearing what he has to say, and if they really will do that to them. To him. But Cas start talking about their plans and George find himself stuck in his chair, unable to move. His hands are shaking and he tries to put them in his lap, calming himself down. The other boys still look at him, like this is all his fault and George doesn’t know what to do.

-

“I know you’re supposed to have two weeks off from tour…” Marco begins, and Zayn snorts.

“Yeah, so why are you calling us in here? I was about to go visit…”

“We have news.” Marco says, interrupting Zayn with a look that clearly states that he doesn’t want to be interrupted again. “We think it would be a good idea if you could record a new song, and release it before the tour starts.”

“Wait, wait.” Harry says and shakes his head. “A new song? Why? We’ve just had a new album out and a new song in two weeks? Why? Not even X Factor works that fast.”

Niall looks at the other boys to see if any of them understands what Marco is talking about, but they look just as surprised as he is, so it can’t be anything they’ve been talking about behind his back anyway.

Marco looks like a child on Christmas, as he continues, with a big grin on his lips.

“Oh you just wait, this is great. We had some inside sources… Yeah, they told us about this new thing and it will be great if we can do something with it. They’ve prepared a version of the song that you could record, you want to hear the demo?”

He doesn’t really wait for a reply from the other boys, before he opens up the laptop in front of him and press play. Soft music starts pouring out of the speakers.

Even only after a few chords Niall recognizes the song. It isn’t exactly the same, but it’s really not that much of a difference, he can clearly tell where this is coming from and he doesn’t like it at all.

“Wait a minute.” He says and raises his hand. “Wait. This sounds a lot like Carry You. That’s Union J’s song!”

The smile from Marco is almost vicious and joyful as he watches Niall.

“So you know it then? But yes, that’s exactly what it is. Isn’t it great? It got leaked from one of our inside sources, and if we release this song before them… They will look stupid when their single is released. They won’t sell any records and their career will be dead before it even started.” He smiles like he’s just gotten a hold of a cure to cancer. The other boys don’t say anything.

Marco laughs a little, and Niall wants to punch him in the face. He looks around at the others, but other than Zayn that’s shifting nervously in his chair, the other boys don’t seem to care about where the song comes from, or what’s happening here.

“We can’t do this.” Niall says and looks at the other boys, trying desperately to get them to agree with him, to speak up together with him, but none of them does. Zayn again, looks more troubled than the others, but he doesn’t say anything. He sits there quietly, staring at Marco, deliberately not looking at Niall.

“We can’t steal their song.” Niall says and tries to get through to the others, but it’s like talking to a wall. None of the other boys look at him, and Marco seems to have made up his mind. “This isn’t fair, they’ve worked hard on this song, and George…”

“Who cares?” Louis snaps suddenly, and his eyes are dark when they look at Niall. “You haven’t finished playing around with that little shit, huh? You gonna ruin it for the rest of us even more? Good if we steal their song. Great if he thinks it was you who told us about it. Only better. Than we don’t have to keep up with getting punished because _you_ can’t keep it in your pants.”

It’s like being slapped, and Niall feels himself sinking down in his chair.

“Louis…” Harry says slowly, letting his hand touch Louis’ arm, but Louis pulls it away.

“No, don’t, Harry.” He hisses and then looks at Niall. “You can’t touch me at all anymore. You know, thanks to our buddy Niall.”

“Calm down, Louis.” Liam says, getting up from his chair. Marco watches them, his face a mix of feelings.

“No.” Louis says. “Let’s record the song. Let’s ruin it for them. And don’t tell me to fucking calm down.”

“You can’t seriously be thinking about doing this.” Niall says, looking at all of them. Again, no one, except for Louis, seems to want to look him in the eyes. “You can’t do this.”

“Watch us.” Louis says and that’s just it.

“I’m out.” Niall says, surprisingly calm. “I’m finished with this. This is it. You can’t do this.”

“You can’t leave.” Marco says and gets up from his chair. “You have a contract.”

“I don’t care about the bloody contract, you cunt.” Niall curses and he can feel his eyes shoot arrows at Marco. “I care about the fact that you’re about to hurt the person I love.”

“You don’t love him.” Louis says and his voice is almost poisonous. “It’s just a fling.”

“You’re just a fling, Lou.” Niall hisses, knowing he isn’t making any sense at all but he just doesn’t care anymore, he doesn’t want to hear another word from his so called friend. “Get out of my fucking face.”

“Niall...” Liam says, reaching out to grab Niall’s arm, but he shakes him off.

“You’re gonna run, Niallster, that’s it?” Louis’ voice is that fake and sweet again and Niall wants to punch him. “You care more about him than about us? Good friend you are.”

Niall snorts and then he spits at the ground in front of Louis.

“Good friend you are, you asshole.” He says and stares at Louis. “I thought that you’d support me, you of all people. But surprise, surprise, you only care about yourself.”

“I only care about myself?” Louis spits out and looks like he’s ready to punch Niall. “You only care about yourself. You’re the one that got seen with Shelley. You’re the one that doesn’t want to do what’s best for the band. You’re so fucking selfish, Horan.”

“Louis, stop it.” Harry says, reaching for Louis’ arm again. “This is crazy, we should…”

“Let go, Harry.” Louis hisses. “He’s about to ruin everything for us.”

“Niall…” Zayn looks at Niall, and his eyes are almost pleading. “You shouldn’t… please.”

“Don’t you dare beg that little cunt to stay.” Louis says and then Niall punches him in the face.

He used a bit more force than he had intended, and Louis, who wasn’t prepared at all falls to the ground, Harry immediately dropping to his knees to see how bad it is.

“Niall!” Harry gasps in surprise as he looks up at Niall. Niall is panting. “You…”

“I’m out.” Niall repeats, still as calm as before, and he looks at all of them, especially at Louis on the floor, gripping his jaw that is already turning red. He feels a bit bad as he notices that, but then he decides he shouldn’t care. “Bye, boys.”

And before anyone can even say anything, he grabs his backpack and heads out.

He slams the door shut behind him, without even looking back once.

-

He makes it out in the street before the sudden realization of what he’s just one washes over him and he thinks he might actually faint, and he sits down at the closest bench he can find. His hand still hurts. Oh shit, he punched Louis, shit, shit, shit.

Niall opens up his backpack, fishing out his phone to see if there are any new texts from George, but his phone is dead, except for one text from his brother asking him if everything is okay and if the tabloids are true, which he ignores with a sigh. He’s not ready to answer anything about this right now, he just wants everything to be nice and quiet.

He finds his text conversation with George, wondering if he should send him a text, asking him if he’s okay, telling him about his shit day and then the sudden realization dawns on him, that maybe George knows what’s up.

Niall is shaking when he instead of sending a text gets George contact info open, and hits call after a bit of hesitation. No, George couldn’t know about the song it must be really secret, and if he did, he wouldn’t suspect Niall, right? He wouldn’t do that.

A bunch of signals.

Then voice mail.

Niall can feel his breathing getting almost desperate as he hits call again. This can’t be it, George can’t possibly know about this, and he wouldn’t ignore Niall, he wouldn’t. He’s probably busy with work or hanging out with the boys or something, that must be the reason for him not picking up, not that he suspects Niall of leaking the song, for trying to ruin Union J’s career. He wouldn’t even know about that.

A bunch of signals.

And then he is once again sent to voice mail.

Niall wants to cry when he hits call for the third time. This can’t be happening, this really can’t be happening, he must be out, he must be busy, he can’t be angry, he just can’t. He must know that Niall wouldn’t do this, he must know. George wouldn’t…

A bunch of signals.

And Niall is sent to voice mail.

Niall feels tears streaming down his face when he hits the call button for the fourth time, not really knowing what he is expecting anymore, he’s scared out of his mind and he doesn’t know what to do, he just wants to talk to George, why can’t he just pick up, he needs to talk to him.

This time he’s being sent directly to voice mail. No signals.

George dismissed his call.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sad faced Niall... 0:)


	5. Fear and blame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, updated! I hope you like this and as always, I really appreciate feedback!   
> Apparently in my planning a bunch of stuff I had been planning to write has been filling out the chapters more than I thought, so the next chapter might not be the last... we'll see what will happen! x But here, have some Norge Shoran!

_Step one you say we need to talk. He walks you say sit down it's just a talk. He smiles politely back at you, you stare politely right on through. Some sort of window to your right, as he goes left and you stay right, between the lines of fear and blame, and you begin to wonder why you came._ (The Fray – _How to save a life_ )

The knock on the door feels like explosions in his head, and Niall grunts and hides underneath the blankets. Everything is loud and light and annoying and he doesn’t want to be awake. He doesn’t want to be in the world right now. He wish he could exist in some kind of parallel universe where he won’t have to deal with everything in the real world. Like people. And knocks on the door.

“Go away.”

“No.”

Zayn. Just great. Niall groans into his pillow and thinks that if he just imagines it hard enough, then maybe Zayn will go away and he will be in his parallel universe for a while. Away from all the problems that he doesn’t want to deal with.

But then he can hear knocks again and apparently the universe is still like it has always been, no matter how much he wants it to be different.

“Go away, Zayn.” Niall lifts his head from his pillow just to yell at his friend, and then he falls down to the pillows again.

There’s no reply, only more knocks, probably louder, like really loud bangs and it feels like it’s killing Niall’s ears and head.

“Seriously Zayn, piss off!” Niall yells, but now he hears a key in the lock and the door opens up and Zayn steps inside the apartment. Niall recognizes the sound of his feet, the sneakers he’s always wearing sounds soft against the floor.

“Woah, dude.” Zayn says, quickly sticking his head into Niall’s bedroom, waving his hand in front of him as his nose wrinkles. “It stinks in here. How much have you been drinking? And when did you last shower? Or cleaned?”

He leaves again, complaining and sighing and probably finding more things to complain about as he walks around in the apartment. Niall grunts, extremely annoyed and gets out of bed just to be able to kick Zayn out. He finds Zayn in the kitchen, looking at some old pizza boxes, which he tosses into the bin.

“Go away, Zayn.” Niall says again, feeling a bit too dizzy to actually kick Zayn out. “I don’t want to talk.”

“Well, I do.” Zayn says and sits down at the kitchen table, his brown eyes looking worried as he watches Niall. “It’s been weeks, Niall. The others are freaking out, media is going crazy and…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Niall says, walking over to the kitchen sink to drink some water. He splashes some in his face as well. “I’m not a part of the group anymore, I don’t want to be. I don’t care about what the media is saying, I just want to get drunk and forget about everything.”

Zayn shakes his head. When Niall looks back at him he is still watching him, his dark eyes still worried, more worried than Niall has ever seen him actually, but Niall chooses not to care about that. Not right now.

“The others are really worried.”

Niall snorts.

“Yeah, I’m sure Louis is in great pain. Seriously, please tell me the black eye lasted for at least a few shows and interviews.” He giggles to himself, but looking at Zayn again, he stares right into a couple of serious eyes and Niall swallows.

“We cancelled everything, Niall. We’re not gonna do anything until you’re back. We all agreed.”

Niall shakes his head. That was a bit unexpected, to be honest.

“You shouldn’t do that. I’m not coming back.”

“Niall…”

“Listen, Zayn.” Niall interrupts and he feels angry. “I don’t want anything to do with all this anymore, okay? You wanted to record the song, you’ve all made pretty clear that you don’t care about me and George…”

“I’ve never said that Niall.”

“Well, whatever.” Niall says and he has to hold on to the counter to be able to stay up. _Wow_ , the world is spinning fast. “George is gone, anyway, so it doesn’t really matter now, does it? He won’t talk to me and it’s all thanks to our stupid management and I’m just not doing that anymore.”

Zayn’s eyes are filled with tears as he watches Niall. Niall feels like he’s going to throw up any second, but he tries to keep his vision steady as he watches Zayn.

“Ni, you have to _talk_ to him.” Zayn says, almost desperate. “You must tell him it’s not your fault that it happened, he must know the truth. And we’re not going to record the song.”

Niall shakes his head.

“He won’t pick up.” He whispers, his voice really weak all of a sudden. “And anyway, it doesn’t really matter. I feel guilty. I’m part of the group that wanted to ruin it.”

Zayn walks towards Niall, reaching out to touch him but Niall avoids him. Zayn draws back his hand, looking hurt.

“We wouldn’t…”

“Louis said you would. I might have been spending too much time drinking but I remember that clearly.” Niall’s voice has turned bitter again. “And I didn’t hear any of you speak up for me. You were all just…” He stops, swallows, and suddenly he feels to dizzy, and too hung-over, and he puts his hand over his mouth as he rushes into the bathroom.

As he throws up Zayn calmly massages his shoulders and back, trying to make it better.

-

When Niall’s been throwing up three times it seems to be over, and Zayn tucks him into bed, a big glass of water at his side.

“You don’t have to do this.” Niall grunts. He doesn’t really like the fact that Zayn is being all nice of a sudden now, he could have used some of this a couple of weeks ago, before everything turned to hell. “You should just leave. And give back the spare key, so you can’t jump me again like this.”

Zayn hides a grin and shakes his head so that his hair almost falls into his eyes, apparently he didn’t spend that much time on getting it styled today.

“I think you could use a friend, Ni. You can’t be cooped up like this forever, it isn’t good for you.”

“I want to stay like this.” Niall grunts and turns to the other side, away from Zayn. “I am allowed to. I’m rich, I can do what I want, can’t I?”

Zayn laughs and it pierces through Niall’s ears. Woah, he really should cut down on the vodka, probably. Whatever.

“Niall, you can’t do this. You need to talk to people, like, do you want me to call Jaymi and ask if…”

“No.” Niall says abruptly. Zayn shakes his head.

“Niall, are you sure, because…”

“We’re not calling anyone. I’m fine like this. Can you please just leave?” Niall’s voice is only a whisper now but he hopes Zayn will understand that he’s being serious. He can feel Zayn’s hand on his shoulder.

“Niall…”

“Please.” Niall says and swallows, feeling tears building up in his eyes but he is not going to cry. Not right now. Not when Zayn is still in the room. Zayn sighs.

“Fine, I will leave but just… Please answer your phone when I call you. And if the others call as well, we’re worried about you. And please try to contact George.”

Niall hears Zayn get up from sitting on the bed, and then his steps in the hallway until the door opens and closes again.

Niall takes a deep breath before hiding his face in his pillow, sobbing viciously now when no one is around to see it.

-

“Oh my god, just look at this!”

Jaymi is beaming when he lets George watch the twitter feed on his phone. They’ve just been played on radio for the first time, and _Carry You_ is now on everyone’s lips. George sees a lot of tweets about how amazing it is, that people love it and that some people that didn’t like Union J before, now have to admit that they are pretty talented.

George smiles. He knows he could give Jaymi a better one, he knows this, but it is a smile anyway.

“That’s great, Jaymi.” He says and hopes his voice isn’t too shaky. If it is, Jaymi doesn’t notice anyway because they are both interrupted by a loud ‘woop woop’ from JJ.

“Guys, this is amazing!” JJ says, and his arm is around Josh’s shoulders and they are both beaming like this is the happiest moment of their entire lives. It probably is. George wants to smile too, be beaming happy with the rest of them but he’s got a lump in his throat and it feels impossible to swallow.

He tries anyway, and it’s with a loud gulp and then he feels his eyes tear up when it just feels like he can’t even breathe. Josh looks over at him and his eyes are now filled with worry.

“George, are you okay?”

George nods, his body is shaking but he hopes they won’t notice. He tries to put his hands together because his hands are shaking like crazy, and that is almost impossible to hide.

He’s not able to hide it though because the rest of the boys notice him and how pale he is, and it takes like two seconds and then they are all sitting down next to him, holding him close.

“You have to talk to him, George.” Jaymi says as he is stroking George’s arm as if to calm him. “You have to hear him out. You can’t go on like this, it’s…”

George shakes his head.

“I don’t… I can’t do that. Not yet.”

JJ’s eyes are sad as he watches George.

“George, it’s been weeks. You’ve seen the headlines, he must be…”

“Yeah.” George said, and suddenly there’s a bitter tone to his voice and he doesn’t want to be bitter, doesn’t want to be like this but he just can’t help himself and this isn’t fair, he shouldn’t have to go through this. “The articles about him eloping with his secret girlfriend Natasha or something, that was great.”

“You know that isn’t true.” Jaymi says and his eyes are almost pleading. Josh looks at George as well, his whole body practically begging George to get Niall on the phone.

“It’s their management. They are freaking out. You know that.” Josh says, and his voice is almost impossible to hear, but it’s still firm. “We’ve been talking to Zayn, and…”

“I don’t want you to talk to Zayn anymore.” George says and he gets up from his seat, leaving the others there. “I need… I want to be alone.”

“George…” JJ says, but George has already left the room.

-

Niall lets the water run all over his body, and he’s resting against the shower wall, his forehead pressed against the cool wall as he is trying hard to not think about the fact that George still isn’t talking to him.

He doesn’t want to be getting desperate, but he is. He really misses him. And he isn’t used to feeling like this, he’s used to being in charge of his feelings but since George walked into his life everything has changed.

He doesn’t know what to do anymore.

Niall feels his body starting to get cold as the water is cooling off, so he leans over to turn the shower off. He steps out into the bathroom, grabbing his biggest towel from the pile and wraps himself in it.

Niall dries himself off as he walks back to his bedroom, and it’s when he’s just about to grab a fresh shirt that he glances outside of the room and he notices someone sitting on his sofa.

He almost falls over because of the shock.

“Hi.” Louis says, his eyes are looking cold as his smile, he looks extremely uncomfortable where he’s sitting, like he is in a new place and doesn’t really know what to do with himself. He shouldn’t, he’s been at Niall’s place hundreds of times, but he looks out of place. Niall swallows, trying to ignore the feeling of his blood boiling with anger.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, his voice sounding as cold as Louis’ smile, and then he grabs a shirt, pulling it over his head. “How did you get inside?”

Louis fishes out a key, showing it to Niall.

“Got this from Zayn. Figured we need to talk. Zayn told me that…”

“I don’t think we have anything to say to each other, actually.” Niall says, his voice cold and harsh as he picks out a pair of sweats and puts them on. “I think we’re kind of finished, actually. You shouldn’t have come her.”

Louis snorts. It annoys Niall.

“I know I probably shouldn’t have. But then again, I’m the best one to knock some sense into you, right?”

“You should try knocking some sense into yourself.” Niall says and now he is staring into Louis’ eyes, trying really hard to not punch him again. “Don’t come here to lecture me about George or the band, you’ve already been through that and I heard you the first time, thank you very much.”

“Niall…” Louis says, and suddenly his look softens a bit, as his body stops tensing up. Niall swallows again. “I… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Niall shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. We’re through.”

“But Niall, I…”

“You what?” Niall asks, suddenly yelling. He didn’t even realize he started to, but suddenly he can’t control himself. “You’re gonna honestly try and explain why you’ve been such a dick to me? You, you of all people, knowing exactly how sucky it is to be us sometimes, knowing what it’s like to have to do things just because someone else tells us to, you’re gonna lecture me about it?”

Louis opens his mouth as if to try to interrupt Niall, but Niall can’t stop now, he’s yelling over the top of his lungs and probably everyone in the building can hear him right now but he doesn’t care. He really doesn’t care anymore.

“And it isn’t just about you not ‘approving’, you even want to actually ruin the career of my boyfriend? You want me to hurt him? Honestly, Louis. And you don’t even care about me, you just care about yourself and I just thought…”

“Niall.” Louis says and he gets to his feet, walking closer to Niall and Niall can feel his body trembling because he is so angry, and he just wants to hit Louis again.

“Don’t even go there, Lou.” Niall says, his body shaking. “What are you even trying to do here?”

“I want to help you.” Louis says and his eyes are pleading and filled with tears. “Ni, I am so sorry about the last few months. I really am, I just… all the lies, it’s getting to me and I just can’t handle it anymore and then I found out that you haven’t been honest and it ends up with the rest of us having to take the fall and I just… I snapped.”

“It isn’t my fault.” Niall mumbles and he can feel how close he is to tearing up himself.

“I know that.” Louis says. “I know. I just… I’m going crazy here, Niall. And I just… I didn’t think. Everything just turned black for me. I was just so sick of everyone trying to make me their puppy and I just…”

“You shouldn’t take it out on me.” Niall says, his voice is silent. “You shouldn’t. It isn’t our fault, I didn’t mean to fall…”

“In love.” Louis says, and he smiles his half smile, that real smile that is so rare nowadays on Louis, the smile that he kind of only shows when he is around Harry. “I know you are. And you’re right, I’m a dick. The rest of us as well, probably. We should have handled it differently, maybe we should. But I just… I’m not good at handling feelings.”

“I know.” Niall says under his breath, and Louis sighs.

“I know I really can’t apologize. I was a jerk. I should probably leave. But I was worried about you. We all were. When you left, I realized how stupid it all was. All of it. And then Zayn told me about how you were feeling and I just…” Louis reaches out to stroke Niall’s arm and Niall almost flinches. “I don’t want you to feel that way. We can’t have you being heartbroken.”

“Well, I am.” Niall says, and now his voice is shaky too. “I don’t know what to do, Louis. And I could have used a friend, and instead of getting a friend, you all just…”

“I know we did. I’m sorry.” Louis whispers and Niall wants to say something else, but he can’t find the right words.

They stare at each other for a moment. Louis’ eyes look calm, yet teary, and Niall feel that he himself isn’t doing a really good job hiding his feelings.

“I brought you something.” Louis whispers suddenly and Niall blinks in surprise.

“You brought me something?”

Louis nods.

“It’s… I left it in the kitchen.”

Niall looks puzzled as Louis leads him into the kitchen. On the table is a bunch of papers, all looking serious with writing on them. Niall quickly glances down at them, flipping through the pages before he looks up at Louis again with an even bigger question mark on his face.

“Is this…”

Louis is nodding again, jumping up to sit on the counter.

“If you want us to… We’re out. We’re dropping Modest!. We’ll do our own thing. It isn’t worth it anymore.”

“But we have…”

“We’re through with them.” Louis says and his eyes look calm as he watches Niall. “It’s over. They will probably do a lot of nasty stuff and sue us, but this isn’t worth it anymore. The band is… We’re all ready to leave. If you come back to us, we’ll leave and we can be a group again. Be who we want to be. No one telling us to act in a certain way. Just us.”

Niall reads the papers, trying to understand all of it, but there are a lot of fancy legal terms he isn’t familiar with. When he looks up at Louis again his bottom lip is trembling. He bites down on it to stop if from trembling before he speaks.

“But… it means so much to you. Your career, everything, I mean…”

“Niall.” Louis says and he shakes his head as he watches the younger guy. “I’m a jerk. I’ve admitted that. And I was stupid. But honestly, the song and hiding and… This is just it. There’s no more we can do. We can’t live like this, can we?”

Niall shakes his head, still having trouble believing he’s actually hearing this. He looks through the papers again, just to look busy.

Louis jumps down from the counter and pats Niall’s shoulder.

“Please, think about it. And then call us. We want all five of us to be there when we till them we’re dropping out, okay?”

“I…” Niall says, but Louis is already turning away to leave. As he opens the door he looks back at Niall over his shoulder.

“And call George again, Niall. Please call him.”

Niall shakes his head. It’s been over a week since he tried.

“He won’t pick up, Lou.”

Louis turns around and looks at Niall once again before closing the door.

“Try, love.” He says, and then he closes the door behind him, leaving Niall with a bunch of papers, big decisions and a beating heart.

He doesn’t even realize if this was real, but since the papers are still in his hands, he guesses that it was.

-

“It’s for you, George.” Jaymi says after answering his phone. They are all out to celebrate, and George is actually having fun, which feels great. They had been invited to a really nice club with great music and nice drinks, and George enjoyed it really much and the others seemed to like it too. Jaymi had been with Olly all night, dancing like crazy and George was sure that Josh didn’t think that anyone would notice, but he had totally seen that he and JJ had been trying to grope each other out on the dance floor.

“For me?” He asks, a bit puzzled because people doesn’t usually call him on Jaymi’s phone, but then again, he can’t even remember where he put his own phone so that might be it, people have been trying to reach him and he didn’t pick up, so they turn to Jaymi.

He puts the phone to his ear, sounding cheerful as he talks.

“Hello?”

At first the person on the other line is just quiet, and George is about to repeat his hello, in case the person didn’t hear him, but then he hears a hitch of a breath.

“Hi.”

Niall. George glances over at Jaymi, not sure if he should be angry at him for forcing this on him like this but it’s Niall on the phone. Niall.

“Uhm. Hi.” George says, feeling stupid and awkward and blushing, so he excuses himself from the others in the crowd and heads outside.

Outside the air is cold, like rain is close, but it’s quiet and he can hear Niall’s nervous breaths on the other side of the line just perfectly.

“I… You didn’t return my calls.” Niall says, and he sounds just as awkward as George is feeling and George feels a lump in his throat.

“I… I know. I…” George says, trying not to cry, he’s only like 1 minute into a conversation and he’s almost crying already, this is not good.

“I understand.” Niall says, and George can hear the sound of a car on Niall’s end of the call. Maybe he’s outside as well. “Uhm, I just… I… Can’t we please like, talk?”

“We are talking.” George says, and it’s stupid, stupid, stupid but it’s like his brains can’t function properly and it’s all Niall’s fault, Niall’s stupid sweet voice with the silly Irish accent and the way George just knows how his beautiful eyes are looking right now, nervous and big and _beautifully_ perfect.

“Yeah. I…” Niall laughs a little nervously. “I thought… Uhm. Maybe we could meet up, like… I understand if you don’t want to see me but I just… God, George I miss you.”

George wants to cry. This isn’t fair.

“I… I miss you too.”

Niall breathes out, like a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulder. George wants to see him. Now.

“Does that mean we can meet up? Please.”

George nods, and then he realizes how stupid that is because he’s on the phone, Niall isn’t there, He can’t see him nodding.

“Uhm. Yes. When?”

“I… would like, right now be okay? Because… I’m kind of standing behind you.”

George spins around and almost drops Jaymi’s phone. At the end of the street, just under a street light a familiar figure is standing, dressed in a white beanie and with the black jacket George loves, and he's about to faint, actually faint. He turns off the phone and puts it in his pocket, forgetting that it’s Jaymi’s for a moment. He probably won’t miss it anyway.

George is staring. His legs seems to move on his own because he’s walking closer to Niall and Niall is walking closer to him, only stopping when they are a few feet apart and George can see every part of Niall’s face, every little thing that he likes so much.

“Hi.” Niall says, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he watches George carefully, as if he is afraid George will get angry and yell at him. “I… I’m sorry to be out here like this, I just…”

“No, it’s okay.” George says breathlessly. “I…”

He’s interrupted by the sound of soft rain, dripping down in his neck. Both he and Niall look up to the sky and then in a few seconds it really starts to rain. Like really.

It’s cold and they could probably get sick from standing there but George can’t move.

He’s looking at Niall through the pouring rain, trying to remember how to form words.

Niall doesn’t seem to mind the rain either.

He’s staring back.


	6. Moments of gold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is somewhat the last chapter, BUT there will be an epilogue as well. Thank you to EVERYONE who's been reading and sending me feedback and love and just... I love you guys! I hope you will like this chapter as well. x

_If I kiss you like this, and if you whisper like that. It was lost long ago but it's all coming back to me. If you want me like this, and if you need me like that. It was dead long ago, but it's all coming back to me. It's so hard to resist, and it's all coming back to me. I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now_ (Celine Dion – _It’s all coming back to me now_ )

He really should say something. He knows he should. He just doesn’t know how to start; now when he’s here all words seems to be lost in the midnight rain.

George swallows, Niall can tell. His Adam’s apple bobbles like crazy. Niall swallows as well. He should have been planning for this. he should have had a backup plan or something because he should have realized he would freeze up. But he didn’t have  a plan b.

“I…” Niall stammers, trying desperately to say something but this is the closest he’s been to George in weeks and it’s overwhelming, everything is just coming back to him now and it is crazy. He doesn’t want to talk, he just wants to hold George in his arms, tell him it’s okay.

“What… what are you doing here?” George asks and his voice is weak and it sounds broken and Niall wants to cry because he can’t really reply. He can’t come up with a good answer that will explain it all, maybe he should just say something really good, but he can’t even come up with anything. So he just goes with it.

“I… George, I can’t do this anymore. I just want you to be okay, I mean, I want us to be okay, I just want…”

“I’m sorry.” George whispers and his body is shaking, his lips are trembling and his eyes are so beautiful Niall doesn’t know what to do. The rain is pouring down and it is so cold, and George’s curls are no more but it doesn’t matter, Niall doesn’t care about the rain.

“I don’t… I don’t really know what to do.” Niall admits and he feels stupid. “I just… I don’t know what to do without you. Lame, innit.”

He feels lame. But George shakes his head.

“No, I… I know. I can’t… I don’t want to be without you either.”

Niall wants to cry now because everything hurts so much. A couple of people pass them in the street, but they don’t look at them, apparently they are not worth the attention tonight, or people can just tell that they need to be alone. Niall is so thankful. This is just not the moment for autographs or anything like that, like photos. Not right now. Anytime, but not now.

“Then why didn’t you talk to me?” Niall whispers and his voice is shaky. “Why didn’t you…  Did you really think that I stole the song?”

George shakes his head again, and then he looks at Niall. His big eyes are beautiful and watery.

“No, I… I know you wouldn’t do it.”

“Then _why_?” Niall asks again, taking a step closer to George in pure desperation. “I don’t understand George, I… Why did you ignore me, I…”

“Because I…” George whispers and now it looks like the rain down George’s cheeks are mixed with tears. “Because it made me realize what will happen. Like. It will always be like this with us, won’t it?”

“Be like _what_?” Niall asks and he really doesn’t understand, he desperately tries but he doesn’t know what George is talking about. George looks down into the street.

“Secrets. Lies. Hiding. Competition. It will always be like that. We will always be in two competing boy bands. We will always be forced to hide what we are and lie about who we like and media will try so hard to break us apart and I…”

“But you trust me, don’t you?” Niall says and his whole body is aching right now. They had talked about this, all the time, about media and how none of that is real and how they knew that they could trust each other. He didn’t think that he would have to explain this again, that this would be a problem. George looks up.

“I trust you, Niall, I do. I just… I don’t know if I can handle all this. I don’t want to hide the fact that I’m with the boy of my dreams. That I am so in love that my whole heart aches whenever I am not with you. I want to be able to write love songs and put them on our new album and be proud in interviews when I tell them that it is about you, I don’t…”

He pauses and Niall swallows, opens his mouth to say something, but George isn’t finished, it’s like he finally got to say what has been on his mind for a long time and now he just can’t stop what he’s doing. Like he’s afraid that soon Niall will be gone again, and George will be left with a lot of things on his mind that he didn’t get to say.

“And it’s just, it’s breaking me. Because being with you is amazing, the best thing I have ever experienced ever and I just... It hurts me so much. And we won’t be able to change this soon, right? Because you still have your career and your management and that’s not going away anytime soon is it? We’re just…”

“Maybe not.” Niall whispers and George blinks. Niall takes a deep breath and then he takes one step closer to George, touching his arm just slightly, and feels himself getting goose bumps because of the touch. “I… That’s what I want to talk about.”

“What…” George says, and then there is the distant sound of thunder, the rain getting worse. George looks up into the sky.

“Should we go to my place instead?” He asks and Niall wants to scream yes, but he manages to just nod and agree, and George nods as well.

Niall waves for a cab and then they head to George’s apartment.

-

George feels awkward and embarrassed and out of place, which is really weird because it’s Niall and Niall always makes him feel comfortable but right now everything is stranger and as George steps into the hallway, he turns to Niall just to see that Niall looks just as awkward as he feels.

“Uhm, so… do you want to borrow some clothes?” George asks, looking at their dripping shirts and jeans. “I mean, I could…”

“Yes, that would be great.” Niall says and George nods, walking into the bedroom and getting Niall to follow him.

When George picks out a couple of sweats and tees, he remembers that he still has Jaymi’s phone in his pocket and groans as he notices it.

“Fuck, I forgot Jaymi’s phone.” He says as he tosses the new set of clothes to Niall. “Hopefully he won’t kill me.”

“I’m sure it will be fine. “ Niall says with a little half smile as he takes off his shirt that has almost slicked to his body because of the rain. George swallows and tries not to keep too much attention to Niall’s half naked body.

When they are dressed George puts the kettle on and they sit down in the sofa. Their wet clothes are hanging in the bathroom.

“So, uhm.” George says, shifting nervously. “You had something to tell me.”

Niall swallows. He doesn’t know why this makes him nervous because it is a good thing, but he still is nervous.

“I… When management wanted us to do the song, I… I didn’t want to. But Louis wanted to.”

George looks pale and Niall looks down. It is a bit difficult to talk about.

“The others didn’t… I mean, they didn’t say that they wanted to, but they didn’t help me by speaking up to Louis either so…We had a fight and I walked out, and that’s why… I’ve been gone for weeks. Because, yeah. When you punch your band mate in the face you can’t do much more than that.”

George can’t help but to smile, he is probably an awful person because of this but he can’t help himself, and then Niall continues.

“Well, anyway… I was so sick of it. All of it. And Zayn tried to talk to me but I didn’t… anyway. Today Louis came over. To apologize.”

“Really?” George says and his voice sounds hopeful.  Niall nods, and he is just about to continue talking when they hear the kettle. George groans.

“Be right back, I’m just gonna get us a cuppa.”

Niall nods, looking at George as he jumps up from the sofa, and he sits quiet until George returns with two cups of steaming, hot tea.

“So, uhm.. sorry.” George says awkwardly as he sits down. “What did you say about Louis?”

“well, yeah he came over to apologize and… Yeah. And it wasn’t just to apologize. He said he had other things to say as well, and that’s when he told me that they had been in band meetings, him and the rest of the boys and that they had some new plans. They are… I guess we are… we’re getting out.”

“Getting out?” George asks and he feels hope filling up his entire body. Niall’s eyes are now sparkling.

“We’re leaving Modest!. All of that. We’re done. We will take the lawsuit and then we will move on. But we’re done.”

George feels like he doesn’t know what to believe, ad he really doesn’t know what to say so he just stares at Niall, waiting for him to say something else but now Niall is quiet. Instead he is just watching George, a big, nervous smile on his lips as he waits for George’s reaction.

“I…” George stammers. “Are you sure? Like, really? But that’s… it’s your careers!”

Niall shakes his head.

“It isn’t worth all the crap we have to put up with. This was just it, you know? We hope we will have a strong following even if we drop Modest. And even if people knows we are gay, that Harry and Louis are in a relationship. Louis is so tired of pretending to be in another relationship, and Harry is sick of being shut in the closet, and well, you know about me… and to be honest, it hasn’t been easy for Zayn or Liam either, there’s a lot of crap they have to put up with. And I am so tired of pretending that I’m not in a relationship with you, and…”

Niall pauses and watches George nervously.

“Uhm, I mean…” He says and suddenly his cheeks are flushed. “I mean, if you still want to… be in a relationship with me. Because I… I would like that. Very much.”

George looks at Niall, how he is sitting on his sofa with his legs crossed, dressed in George’s old sweats and a shirt and George feels his whole inside exploding with love for him. He can’t even imagine not being with Niall anymore.

“Yes.” He mumbles nervously, slowly moving closer to Niall. “I mean I… Please. Yes. I want that. I want you.”

Niall sighs, like he’s been nervous about this the whole night and now finally, finally George is letting him in for real.

“Thank you.” Niall mumbles, looking at George with his beautiful eyes and George stares back, feeling his whole body burn with need. They should probably talk more. They should let everything out, go over everything so that they are sure where they both are, that they have both been giving the chance to speak what’s on their mind. But right now George really just wants one thing.

“Kiss me?” George whispers and Niall closes his eyes in relief and then he leans in closer to George, and open his eyes again just as their lips softly touches each other.

It’s sweet and innocent, it’s perfect and beautiful when Niall lets his lips touch George’s with such a tender touch that George is surprised. They stay like that for moments, just trying to brush against each other, their lips slowly growing accustomed to feeling each other again, as if they had been away from each other far too long.

It has been far too long, George thinks as he carefully slides his hand up Niall’s arm, to nuzzle his neck and the blonde hair. He grabs a handful of hair, slowly pulling Niall even closer which deepens the kiss and a soft moan escapes from Niall’s lips.

When they have to break the kiss to get some air George is a bit disappointed, but Niall is smiling and it is beautiful, and they don’t wait long until they lean in closer again, continuing the kissing.

It is intense. It is perfect. This is what George is meant for, he thinks to himself as Niall’s tongue slides over George’s lips, begging for entrance. He can’t let this go. Never. This is all he wants. They can make this work. They can fix everything. This…

“George, you can’t just… oh god, I’m sorry!”

George and Niall separate and look up, and Jaymi is standing in the doorway, looking red and embarrassed as he tries to hide his face in his hands.

“I am so sorry.” He whispers as he watches the two boys on the sofa. “But don’t mind me.” He adds quickly, and his face is now looking extremely happy with a big smile on his face, as if he is more than happy to see that George is with Niall again. “Actually, I’m not even here. No, I am not, I am… I am air. Just continue to do what you’re doing and… Oh you guys!”

Jaymi leaps forward and hugs the two of them with almost a little squeal. When he lets go of them his smile is even bigger.

“I’m just gonna grab my phone, and then I will be _so_ out of here, quicker than you can… Oh just have fun you two, okay, use condoms!”

And George can’t help but to laugh as Jaymi runs outside again and when he looks over at Niall, Niall is laughing as well.

“He’s a fun guy that Jaymi.” Niall grins, and George nods.

“One of the best.”

“True.” Niall nods, and his hand rests on George’s leg. George looks at it and then he looks up at Niall again and everything feels good.

“Should we…” George asks and Niall doesn’t let him even finish the question, before his lips finds George’s again.

Now George feels how passion floods through the heat of Niall’s lips and he lets his hands grab hold of Niall’s shoulders, pulling him in closer as Niall’s arms find George’s waist, tangling their arms and legs together as if they belong like that, not meant to be apart.

It’s almost embarrassing how quickly George feels the bulge in his pants start throbbing but he can’t really help himself, Niall is here and they are back to touching and it’s been too long, he hasn’t even wanted to touch himself during the last couple of weeks and now he’s getting everything at once, Niall’s beautiful eyes, Niall’s hair, the smell of Niall’s aftershave and the warmth of his body, the way he fits so perfectly against George when he pulls him close and it just is impossible to resist. George just wants everything. More than everything. He wants it all.

Niall nibbles on George’s bottom lip and lets one of his hands go up under George’s shirt, touching his bare skin, giving George’s goose bumps all over his skin and sending chills down his spine.

“I missed you.” Niall murmurs and his voice is now deep and husky, and George feels a throbbing in Niall’s pants as well, pleased to find out that he isn’t the only one getting hard in an instant, just from some touching.

“Can we…” George whispers and then Niall is standing up, pulling George with him to the bedroom.

“Is it too soon to do this?” Niall whispers as he gently pushes George down on the bed, and George shakes his head so hard that his curls are dancing, as Niall pushes his shirt up so that he can kiss his stomach, caress his abs, working his way down to his pants.

“No.”

“Good.” Niall mumbles and George sees stars when Niall’s hands find their way down his pants.

\--

When Niall wakes up he is half expecting last night to be a dream, but the he realizes that he isn’t at home, he is tangled up in sheets from George’s bed and George is sleeping next to him, hugging a pillow, mouth half open and he looks adorable and Niall is so happy that it did happen.

They did meet up. They did make up. They did everything.

Most importantly they are back together and that’s really all that Niall wants, all he could ask for.

He’s missed this so much, mornings with George, just watching him sleep. He props himself up on one elbow, watching the curly head as he takes deep, calm breath. George’s naked skin is almost golden in the morning sun and Niall is in love, so very much in love.

He wants this to be forever.

He leans in to kiss George softly on the cheek, not to wake him up, just to let him know that he’s there and a smile forms on George’s lips, but he keeps his eyes closed, nuzzling into the pillow.

Niall smiles and leaves the bed, thinking that he probably needs a shower, he might have to get out sooner or later and he doesn’t want to be sticky from come and lube when he meets the rest of the boys, even though it’s a memory from an amazing night.

He steps into the shower, letting the water softly drizzle down his back and stomach, softly humming to himself as he tries to find some shampoo and conditioner in George’s cupboards, when he hears the door to the bathroom open up and George steps inside, carefully getting into the shower with Niall.

“Hey boyfriend.” George says, coming up behind Niall, his arms around his waist as he presses his lips against Niall’s neck. “Why didn’t you invite me to your shower?”

Niall smiles and pushes his body back against George, enjoying the soft skin against skin-feeling.

“Didn’t want to wake you up, love.” He says and let’s his hand caress the back of George’s thigh. “But now when you’re here, maybe you could wash my hair?”

He grins and George chuckles, and kisses his neck again.

“Uhm, Niall?” George asks and Niall turns around so that they are facing each other. George looks a bit nervous. “I just… next week is the first time we will perform live at stage… I mean, with the new song. And I just… do you want to be there? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He adds quickly. “But I just thought…”

“Hey, hey…” Niall says, softly kissing George to stop the nervous rambling. “I would love to be there, okay? Really, I would love to. You know, I could even ask the other lads if they want to come to. It would be good publicity and they would like it. I’m sure.”

George looks a bit unsure about that part.

“Are you… I mean, I don’t want to… feed off your fame or anything and… I don’t want it to be like a publicity stunt, I just want...”

“Hey, you’re not, and it’s not.” Niall says, and he kisses George softly again. “We will like it. And more importantly, Modest will probably hate it. And I’m sure all of us will do anything to piss them off right now.”

George sighs thankfully and leans his head against Niall’s shoulder. He want Modest to be upset as well after all with the song and everything.

“Thank you.” He breathes out, and Niall pulls him closer.

“Anytime.” He whispers, and then he grins, a mischievous look in his eyes. “Now, will you wash my hair or not?”

\--

“Five minutes!”

The other boys look up and George feels a nervous twitch in his stomach as he sneaks a peak outside to see what it looks like out there.

The stage is huge, and so is the crowd. He looks for Niall but can’t find him and he feels a nervous tug to his stomach now, maybe Niall lied? Maybe he isn’t going to show up? But then he finally notices the familiar blonde hair and he is also together with the four other boys and George sighs with relief. Josh walks over to pat his shoulder.

“You didn’t really think he would skip it, did you?” Josh says and looks calm. “He wouldn’t miss it for the world, Georgie. I think he is really excited to see you. See us, maybe. Well, mostly you. The others though…” Josh looks at the other four 1D-boys and his eyes linger on Zayn for a moment. “Maybe they came to see the rest of us…”

George raises an eyebrow to question what Josh just said, and Josh shrugs awkwardly and then JJ walks over.

“Oi, Josh, stay away from the bad boy, I’m getting jealous.” JJ murmurs into Josh’s ear, just audible so that George can hear it as well, but then he laughs as he notices the look on Josh’s face. “Just kidding, love. Go for it if you want.”

“Guys, did you not hear they call out?” Jaymi rolls his eyes when he notices that the other three are just chatting about everything else but the show. “Are you done looking at the audience now and can we actually get ready? Only two minutes to go, are you ready for this?”

George runs his hands through his hair nervously, but when he meets Jaymi’s eyes his look is steady.

“I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

“That’s the spirit.” Jaymi nods appreciatively and grabs the other boys so that they are all walking arm in arm towards the part of the stage where they will enter. “It will be amazing.”

“A dream come true.” Josh says and JJ nods.

“Best of the best, boys.”

“It sure is.” George says, and he looks outside again, noticing Niall leaning in to say something to Harry who is smiling really big and then he says something that gets Niall to laugh and George feels butterflies in his stomach. This is all he ever wanted. He only wanted this.

He can’t believe he is so lucky to have Niall here. That Niall is his. It’s almost too good to be true.

“20 seconds.” The studio worker counts down and George and the rest of the boys are being handed their microphones. George takes a deep breath and looks at the other boys and they are beaming towards him.

It will be okay.

“You’re on!”

George hears the soft tunes when the band starts playing and together the boys walk out on stage. The crowd goes wild and George notices how Niall and the other boys jump up from their seats at the same time, to be able to see better, or maybe just to be able to dance along with the song, George doesn’t really know, all that matters really is that they are all there.

JJ is waving to the crowd, so is Josh and Jaymi does a little dance. George takes a deep breath before he starts singing. He is surprised how easy it is, like this really is what he was meant to do. He belongs up here. This is what he wants to do.

Niall is watching him, singing along with him. And George feels like everything else is blurry, that Niall is the only thing standing out in the crowd.

And it is beautiful.

George Shelley never really thought he would be one to believe in true love and love at first sight, he didn’t think he would be one of those hopeless romantics you read about.

But then again George Shelley never thought he would meet Niall Horan, and that it would change is life forever.

But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you thank you x also, noticing the way I put Josh/Zayn in there...? Heh, it's a new pairing I somewhat like... I might want to write some of that, heh ;)


	7. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S THE END :) thank you so much for everyone that's been reading and giving me feedback and cried along with me to this fic! I hope we'll see more of this pairing :) x And yes I am really tempted to write a Josh/Zayn-fic... maybe I will in the future, tell me if you'd like that!

_We’re not gonna break, cause we both still believe. We know what we’ve got and we’ve got what we need alright. We’re doing something right. Cause it's us against the world, you and me against them all. If you listen to these words, know that we are standing tall. I don't ever see the day that I won't catch you when you fall. Cause it's us against the world tonight_ (Westlife – _Us against the world_ )

“Watch that, it’s really… Noooo Josh!”

George smiles when he listens to Niall’s desperate screams as there’s a loud crash coming from the kitchen, and an _‘Oops’_ from Josh. Trying to not smile when he enters the kitchen (that would probably annoy Niall, thinking that he doesn’t care about how serious this is) he looks at Josh and Niall who are both standing among tons of boxes in the kitchen, and Josh, trying to apologize for dropping one of Niall’s prized glass bowls on the floor.

It doesn’t seem to be broken, but Niall is still upset as he has a go at Josh.

“I’m sorry, Niall, I didn’t mean to! Maybe you should carry your own stuff…”

“Or you could carry my…”

“No, no stop fighting!” George laughs as he makes his way into the kitchen, saving Josh from the pile of other glass bowls he’s holding. “Be nice boys, be nice.”

“I am always nice.” Niall pouts and George grins as he puts the bowls down on the table and then walks over to Niall, planting a big kiss on his cheek.

“You’re not really always nice.” He mumbles and Niall laughs, tugging George closer into a deep kiss.

“Naughty boy.”

“Oi, fellow boy bander in the room.” Josh complains. “God, you guys make me sick.”

“Really?” Niall grins and then Josh has to laugh and shake his head.

“No, not really, so happy for you blokes. Keep going. Only, I’m going out to the other boys.”

George laughs and Niall looks at Josh as he leaves the kitchen.

“Stay away from Zayn, Josh.”

He’s rewarded a middle finger and an angry hiss before Josh disappears out into the garden where the other boys are.

George smiles and pulls Niall closer again, holding him as he kisses his hair.

“We really should unpack soon, babe.”

“I know, I know.” Niall sighs and looks at the boxes filling up the kitchen. “But a barbeque is so much more fun, isn’t it? Especially since we all could make it.”

George smiles and kisses Niall’s lips slowly. He loves him. Oh god, how he loves him.

“Yeah, this is perfect.” He agrees. “Even though I think that people appreciate a barbeque where you actually have plates to eat from.”

He grins jokingly and Niall rolls his eyes.

“I will find the plates… somewhere.”

 

George sits down on a chair while watching Niall going through the boxes. It’s really been too long since they moved in, they really should have unpacked by now but they’ve just been so busy. Music and careers and just being in love and George is so thankful that they got the chance to do this, to be just them.

It had been Niall that had suggested that they’d move in together. He had been secretly looking at new houses outside London and when he found the perfect one he asked George if he didn’t want to move there with him. Maybe it was soon, since they had only been dating for a little over the year but George had said yes without even thinking about it more than a couple of seconds.

He wanted to be with Niall. And Niall wanted to be with him. It really wasn’t much of a discussion on what they should do.

All their friends had approved and now when it was the end of April and the weather started to feel really nice, Josh had come up with the idea for a barbeque for all of them as a moving in party, and George had liked the idea, as had Niall.

Which is why their garden was now filled with all the boys from One Direction and Union J, and it was just really nice.

“Hah, told you I’d find them!” Niall said triumphal as his head popped up from one of the boxes, his hands now holding a bunch of nice plates that would be great for the barbeque. “It wasn’t really that difficult.”

“No, it was just, under your underwear or something.” George says teasingly and takes the plates from Niall. “Come on then, you don’t want to leave JJ hungry for too long, he’ll get really cranky.”

-

“To think that we can actually all be sitting here like this, being friends and… more than friends…” Liam says after a few too many drinks, in a speech kind of way, glancing over at Harry and Louis, which are currently cuddling close, Louis on Harry’s lap. “Is just amazing. Really. Couldn’t think this would happen just a few months ago you know, so good going guys, good going. We made good choice. We’re good people. Good.”

“Shut up, Liam.” Zayn groans and then everybody laughs. “You shouldn’t drink more than one beer, mate. That’s it, we’re switching to water.”

“Hey!” Liam complains as Zayn steals the drink away from him and putting it far away from him, but he doesn’t make any move to get up and get it. George smiles. This is really great.

“I promise they are not always this silly.” Niall whispers into his ear, his breath warm and nice on George’s neck. “Usually they are quite normal, I don’t know what happened. I take no responsibility anyway.”

George can’t help but to giggle.

“It’s fine, Niall. I like them all the same. And I think Josh appreciates it.”

Apparently Liam decided he did want his beer back and his now trying to get it from Zayn, who is trying to keep it away from him which as Zayn leaning over Josh and George doesn’t know if Zayn notices but Josh’s grin just got bigger than George has ever seen it before. He glances over at JJ to see if JJ cares, but JJ doesn’t seem to care, he’s just laughing at the sight of Liam making a fool out of himself and how Harry and Louis seems to ignore them all.

“Great party, Georgey.” Jaymi says, coming over to sit with Niall and George as the other part of the boy band now starts to wrestle, apparently JJ, Josh and Zayn against Liam. It doesn’t seem like a fair fight but it’s quite amusing to watch anyway. “Who would have thought that One Direction could be so childish?”

“Oh come on, you haven’t seen our videos?” Niall groans and then laughs. “We’re crazy!”

Jaymi smiles, it’s warm and great.

“I like your new interviews a lot better, when it feels like you actually say what’s on your mind and not what’s expected of you. Doesn’t it feel great?”

Niall nods and George looks at him and he is so beautiful. George is tempted to reach out and touch his face but he really shouldn’t.

“Yeah, it does feel great. I can’t believe we didn’t get out earlier to be honest, it felt like we were smothered and now we can just… breathe again.”

“NO Josh let go, it’s mine!” They hear Liam complain and the three of them look up again and laughs.

“Crazy people.” Niall shakes his head and then he laughs. “Okay, maybe we should send them home.”

“I should go anyway, Olly is waiting.” Jaymi smiles and then he gets up. “But thanks for inviting us all over guys, it was really nice. I’ll talk to you soon?”

“Of course.” George says and then Jaymi walks over to Josh and Zayn who are currently wrestling for no apparent reason.

“Oi, you guys. Are you finished making out and can we leave? I thought you said you wanted a ride, Josh.”

Josh turns deep red, as do Zayn and they both let go of each other.

“Uhm, sure.” Josh says and glances over at Niall and George who teasingly gives him a thumb up. “Bye, guys. Zayn.”

“Josh.” Zayn says, strangely polite and it has Niall grinning.

“We should leave too, but this was really great.” Louis says and he and Harry get up to follow Jaymi and Josh after giving George and Niall a goodbye wave and hug. “Hey, we should all get together more often. Maybe we should do like a collaboration?”

Jaymi’s eyes sparkle when he hears that.

“It would be so much fun, don’t you agree Josh?”

The four of them keep chatting as they leave the garden, which leaves Niall and George with Zayn and Liam. Liam is eating the last of the strawberries and Zayn sighs.

“Come on Li, let’s go. I guess this party is over.”

“Aw, Zaynie.” Niall teases. “You upset because you didn’t get to leave with Joshie boy? Wanna get to that?”

Zayn turns deep red again and looks a bit angry as he watches Niall.

“Don’t go there, Niall.”

“Oh looks like we’re leaving then.” Liam says, suddenly aware of the situation. “Don’t wanna fight, boys.”

“We’re not fighting.” Zayn defends himself and Niall continues to grin.

“No, we’re just discussing Zayn’s looove.”

“Niall, shut up.”

“And with that we’re leaving.” Liam says, grabbing Zayn’s arm and pulling him with him. “Thanks for the party guys, I’ll call you tomorrow!”

“Great!” Niall says and then it’s strangely quiet all of a sudden when all the other boys have left and it’s just him, George, the sound of birds in the sky and the distant noise from a car. George grabs a blanket from one of the benches they’ve been sitting on and curls up in the big chair that Niall is sitting in, that is big enough for both of them. Niall puts his arm around George, wrapping them both in the blanket as he kisses George’s forehead.

“Silly Zayn.” George mumbles into Niall’s neck, his lips pressed against the soft skin there. “I think your friends might be weirder than mine.”

“Hey, what are you… Okay, that might be right.” Niall laughs and kisses George’s forehead again, not really able to stop doing that. “Hey, I like this. Us. And just this. Being like this. No worries in the world.”

“I like this too.” George mumbles, feeling sleepy and extremely comfortable in Niall’s arms. “Let’s never break up or do anything stupid like that. Let’s just be happy and in love for always. Like Monica and Chandler, please.”

“Wanna adopt twins as well?” Niall grins and George looks up into his boyfriend’s eyes, and they are sparkling.

“If I get to name them.”

“Please don’t pick stupid names like… Luke and Leia.”

“That’s not stupid names!”

“They are, you big geek.” Niall laughs but his laugh is swallowed by George’s mouth covering his.

George tastes of strawberries, ice cream and like George is supposed to taste like, and Niall draws it all in, nibbling on George’s lips and pulling him closer, just enjoying this, it’s so simple but fantastic and he still can’t believe how he is this lucky. He just can’t.

“I love you.” Niall whispers as George pulls away, just looking at Niall again with his big, brown beautiful eyes that are out of this world, just so amazingly gorgeous it’s difficult to even describe them. That George really is human is still difficult to understand.

“And I love you.” George whispers back, running his hand through Niall’s hair, completely messing up his hair but Niall doesn’t even care.

“Should we go inside?” Niall whispers and George pouts a little.

“I like it here.”

“I do too, but I like you in our bed more.” Niall can’t help but to grin, and then George is smiling too.

“Well, when you put it that way…”

George gets up from the chair and gives Niall his hand to help him up as well. Niall squeezes his hand.

“After you.” He says, gesturing for the door, which has George smiling again.

“Maybe we should do the dishes first…”

Niall groans.

“No way, I’ll take care of it tomorrow. Now I want you to take care of me.” He wraps one arm around George’s waist, pulling him inside. George laughs and follows him.

“Always so needy.”

“Only with you.”

“And that makes me so happy.”

George smiles and leans in to kiss Niall again.

How perfect life can be when everything just works out the way it was intended to.


End file.
